


So Long

by Mondhase



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Abduction, Action/Adventure, Desperation, Distrust, Drama, Episode: s01e05 Girl in the Flower Dress, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Interrogation, Manipulation, Slow Romance, Team as Family, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-25
Updated: 2015-11-18
Packaged: 2018-03-15 00:55:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 40
Words: 156,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3432086
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mondhase/pseuds/Mondhase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Skye vanishes from a routine mission, Ward is convinced she betrayed him and the team once again, but what if there is something more to her disappearance? Will the sting of betrayal cause him to take that risk? Set after “The Girl in the Flower Dress”.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> This is set after “Girl in the Flower Dress”, but before Skye can regain everyone's trust completely.

'So long'.

Those were the only two words written on the otherwise blank laptop screen in front of Agent Ward. He couldn't stop staring at it while Agent Coulson and the rest of the team moved around him busily, completely ignoring him for the moment. The cursor was still blinking, prompting anyone to continue typing, and as far as Ward was concerned, the next word was probably going to be 'morons'.

At least that was what he felt like right now.

He still couldn't believe that he had been fooled – again – by the same woman, or rather the same girl, who had betrayed them all only a few weeks ago. This had been the first mission in the field for Skye without direct supervision after the whole ‘Miles’ incident – nothing big, just serving as surveillance support for Ward on a simple operation – and now she was gone, the SHIELD tracking bracelet lying uselessly on the table of the small hotel room they had been using as base.

Fitzsimmons were buzzing around the room, examining the bracelet, the laptop and everything else that might give them a clue as to where Skye had vanished to, but Ward knew this was pointless. There was no mystery to uncover here.

Ever since her lies had been discovered, Skye must have only been waiting for the right opportunity to ditch them and now she had found it, making him look like a complete fool once again.

An angry sound escaped Ward’s lips as he finally forced his gaze away from the cold words in front of him, pushing his chair back in the process. As if the noise had suddenly alerted him to the younger agent’s continued presence, Coulson abandoned the documents he had been studying regarding the mission target and walked over to stand in front of Ward, his arms crossed.

"Tell me again what happened. From the beginning this time."

**To be continued…**


	2. Just A Routine Mission

“Tell me again what happened. From the beginning this time.” Agent Coulson looked down at Ward, a small frown creasing the older man’s forehead.

The specialist let out a deep sigh at his superior’s words, as he couldn’t help but feel that this was a pointless exercise. They had been over this already and he didn’t think that there was much to talk about in the first place.

Skye had left him hanging and fled after she had found a way to get rid of the tracking bracelet and that was the end of it. Now all that was left to do was to alert HQ and make sure they put out a search warrant for her. He was certain that the young hacker had gone completely underground by now, but he wanted to make sure she was arrested the second she resurfaced again, should she ever be dumb enough to do so.

However, as Ward was a good agent, who obeyed orders, he didn’t say any of this out loud and instead started to run Coulson through his and Skye’s mission, even though their team leader already knew most of it anyway.

“It was just a routine mission. I was about to meet with our potential new asset Dr. O’Leary, to make sure that his claim of having information about Centipede was valid. Skye and I came here to set up our operation base, as she was going to be my backup.”

Ward’s thoughts wandered back to a few hours ago, when he and Skye had entered the sparsely furnished hotel room, him carrying two heavy bags of equipment, while the smaller brunette was clutching a binder of files against her chest, her steps bouncing with excitement.

“Thank you so much for taking me with you on this, Ward. I mean it. I know you could have had me run back-end from the Bus, so I really appreciate this. I’ll be your eyes and ears on this mission. Or, well… at least an additional set of eyes and ears.” Skye grinned awkwardly at her S.O. and pushed a strand of hair back behind her ear.

Ward’s face was emotionless as he began to unpack their equipment, but it softened noticeably as he looked at Skye to hand over her laptop.

“You’ve been doing some very good work in the past few weeks; you deserved to go back out in the field.”

The young woman smiled brightly at these words and Ward couldn’t help but be infected by her good mood. He really had missed working with Skye like this.

“So, what do you think, if everything goes well today, is Coulson going to consider taking this thing off?” she asked, raising her hand so Ward could get a good look at the bracelet around her wrist.

The agent grimaced slightly, not wanting to make any promises.

“Honestly, I’m not sure and I can’t really speak for him, either, but Agent Coulson might not be ready to trust you again just yet. Things like that, they take time.”

Skye’s face fell a little at this reply as she seemed to be realising that the consequences of her actions might not go away as quickly as she had hoped.

“But,” Ward continued, causing the hacker to glance up at him with renewed hope, “should he ask for my advice, I’ll tell him that I think you earned your old place on the team back. Unconditionally.”

Practically grinning from ear to ear, Skye closed the small distance between her and the agent and embraced him enthusiastically, catching him completely off guard.

“I know I’ve said this before, but thank you so much, Ward. You honestly have no idea how much that means to me.” They stood like this for a few seconds, but even though Agent Ward couldn’t deny that he was enjoying Skye’s closeness, they still had a job to do; so in the end he pushed her away gently, looking down at her.

“Alright, alright. But let’s postpone the celebrations until after we finished this mission, okay?”

Becoming focused again, Skye nodded and grabbed the files she had put down on the table earlier.

“Sorry, you’re right. Now, where were we?” She sifted through the various documents until she pulled one out and handed it over to Ward.

“Right, Dr. Thomas O’Leary, 54, biochemist who did some government work in the past, but has been working in the private sector for over a decade now. He used to work in a lab in D.C. that was destroyed in a fire five years ago and after that he was hired by the scientific research department of the Maher Foundation in Denver, Colorado. Now he’s contacted SHIELD and claims that the foundation has been a front for Centipede all this time and he wants to come clean about the work he’s been doing there.

You’ll be meeting him at a café two blocks from here, see if he checks out and bring him in. That’s it, no biggie,” Skye finished with a smile, waiting for Ward to get to the end of the report.

As he handed the document back to her, the agent’s eyes wandered over to the laptop set up on the table.

“And you’ll be monitoring everything from here.”

“Exactly. Coulson gave me access to a SHIELD satellite, so I’ll be watching your every move, make sure O’Leary is alone and that everything goes according to plan.” Looking down at her bracelet once more, Skye cringed slightly before continuing. “And I guess during all of this someone somewhere will be watching _my_ every move, making sure I’m not doing anything illegal. Or fun. Or whatever. Not that I’m complaining, though,” she added sarcastically, crossing her arms in front of her chest.

Understanding her frustration, but also needing his partner to be focused, Ward looked Skye directly in the eye and waited until she returned his gaze.

“Trust me, it’s going to come off again, soon. As I said, you earned it. But for now you have to concentrate on the mission, alright?”

“Alright, fine,” the young woman replied with a slight pout before getting back to her equipment and finishing the last preparations.

Back in the present, Ward clenched his fist unconsciously as he remembered his encouraging words to Skye just a few hours ago. ‘ _You earned it_ ’, how laughable and naïve that now sounded to him.

He had been ready to trust her, had even been about to put in a good word with Coulson for her – yet again – and also yet again she had thrown this trust right back into his face. Wherever Skye was now, he was sure that she was still laughing about him, the SHIELD agent she had turned into a fool with nothing more but her beautiful smile.

**To be continued…**


	3. You Are Mine

It was completely dark around her as Skye woke up, her head pounding and her side hurting. She tried to move, but quickly realised that a thick layer of duct tape was tying her arms and legs to the chair she was sitting on, preventing her from getting up. She struggled briefly against the restraints, but soon found that it was pointless. Not even trying to move with the chair was doing anything, as it seemed to have been bolted to the floor, rendering her completely stuck.

While she was still trying to adjust to her terrifying new situation, a cold shiver went through Skye and she noticed for the first time that the blouse and jacket she had been wearing earlier had been removed. Instead she was sitting only in a tank top, her arms and shoulders being exposed to the chilly air.

Not that the low temperature was her main concern right now, though, obviously.

Her first priority at the moment was to try and figure out where she was, but as she couldn’t see a thing, that wasn’t a particularly easy task. There were no sounds she could make out, either, only the smell of dust and machine oil in the air around her, indicating that she might be in some kind of factory.

She didn’t have a clue how she had gotten here, though. The last thing Skye remembered was being in that hotel room and in radio contact with Ward as the signal had started to break off. She had tried to fix the connection, but had ultimately lost it completely which shouldn't even have been possible.

Before the young woman could try to make any more sense of her situation, however, the door in front of her, which she hadn’t even realised was there so far, suddenly opened and a bright light shone into the room, momentarily blinding her.

Skye averted her gaze to protect her eyes from the sudden glare, but then a dark silhouette blocked part of the light again and slowly stepped into the room. She could tell by the heavy footsteps that her visitor was male, but she couldn’t make out his face in the shadows.

“The famous hacker Skye; nice of you to finally join us,” a friendly voice greeted her, causing the young woman to tense up, her arms straining against the tape holding her once again. “I will ask you some questions now and I am counting on your full cooperation. Otherwise this will become a lot more unpleasant than it has to be.”

Despite the obvious threat in his words, the man’s voice remained calm, almost amiable, but Skye didn’t doubt the very real danger she was in for even a second. She sure as hell wasn’t going to tell the person who had kidnapped her anything, though, and so she looked up at him defiantly, her head held high.

“You are making a very big mistake here right now. I have friends – very _dangerous_ friends – who are looking for me at this very moment and if you don’t let me go immediately, things are soon going to become very unpleasant for _you_.”

Her kidnapper let out a soft chuckle at this, obviously amused by the young woman’s boldness. He was immediately serious again, however, as he suddenly leaned forward so that his hands were next to Skye’s on the armrests of the chair. His face was only inches away from hers now, but his features were still hidden by the sharp contrast of the light behind him.

“No-one is looking for you. As far as your friends at SHIELD are concerned, you bailed on them and betrayed their trust once again. Nothing unusual for you, right?”

Skye swallowed hard as her kidnapper’s words sank in, but a part of her adamantly refused to believe that he was telling the truth. She shook her head decisively as she replied.

“No. No they would never believe that! They wouldn’t...” she tried to argue, but in the end the young woman’s voice trailed off as she finally realised how much this actually sounded like her after all.

“Oh, they wouldn’t? Are you so sure about that?” the man in front of her asked in return, his tone smug. “There was no sign of struggle, nothing, you just got up and left, you ran like you always do when things get too rough. Only this time you were even so thoughtful to leave your team a note to say goodbye.”

At this point Skye’s kidnapper lowered his voice, for the first time sounding actually intimidating as he continued.

“So believe me when I tell you that no-one is coming to save you. You are mine until I decide that I’m through with you.”

Skye barely dared to breathe as her captor remained right in front of her for a few more seconds, unmoving. She knew he was staring right at her, as if to make sure that his point had been understood, even though all she was able to see was a face hidden in darkness. When he finally got back up and turned around to head for the door, she gasped for air, feeling utterly horrified.

“Maybe a few more hours in the dark will help you see the truth more clearly. Call, if you’re willing to talk.”

He was almost out of the room again, when Skye called after him, fighting to keep her voice from trembling.

“What did it say?” She couldn’t make out the look on her kidnapper’s face in the darkness, but judging from his silence, she figured it was one of confusion right now.

“The note, what did it say? What did you write that my friends would believe I just abandoned them like that?”

Even having nothing but his voice to go on, Skye could easily imagine the malicious grin the man in front of her was wearing when he answered her, as it clearly transcended into his words.

“So long,” he simply replied before he closed the door behind him, leaving Skye alone in the darkness once again.

**To be continued...**


	4. Interferences

“So you headed out to meet with Dr. O’Leary?” Agent Coulson prompted, clearly eager to get on with the story.

“Yes,” Ward replied, his expression stoic as he thought back to the last time he had seen the team’s wayward hacker.

“Skye set up communications, warning me that the television tower not far from here might mess with the signal once the distance between us increased. But she also said it wasn’t a big deal and that she would be able to fix it.” He gave a small laugh at that, bewildered at the faith he had still had in the young woman at that point. However, he quickly continued his report as he saw the tense expression on Coulson’s face, knowing that his superior was more interested in facts right now than in his hurt feelings.

“After that I left for my meeting with O’Leary and with the heads-up Skye had given me, I wasn’t overly concerned, when there started to be more and more interferences in the radio signal the closer I got to my destination. Skye assured me she was working on it, that she would somehow reroute the signal through another channel or use the satellite connection to stabilise it; lots of technical explanations I didn’t really care about to be honest,” Ward admitted freely. He had never taken much of an interest in the more scientific aspects of his missions beyond the basics he had picked up during his operative training.

“When the signal broke off completely, I already had eyes on the meeting place, so I decided to proceed with the mission, trusting Skye to deal with the problems on her end alone. But the target never showed. I waited at the café for twenty-seven minutes before I went back to the hotel, as Dr. O’Leary failed to turn up. I guess you just can’t rely on people to keep their word anymore.”

“And Skye was missing when you came back?” Coulson was still standing in front of Ward with his arms crossed, listening closely to the agent’s explanations. The resentment in the younger man’s voice wasn’t lost on him, but he preferred to remain objective and take all possible explanations for a situation into consideration before making a decision.

“Yes,” Ward nodded, still bitter about the memory. “Usually I would have waited a lot longer for a meeting like this, but as the radio signal never came back up, I grew slightly concerned. But when I came back here, there was no sign of a break-in. The room still looked the same as I had left it and the only things different – except from Skye missing – were this,” he pushed the now-useless SHIELD bracelet a few inches across the table, “and that _thoughtful_ note she had left to let us know she was quitting.”

“Any ideas where she went or why now?” Coulson asked, his eyes darting to the other agents in the room as well.

“No,” Ward replied, shaking his head in defeat. “To be honest, I didn’t see this coming at all – just like I didn’t see it coming the last time she betrayed us – and I have no idea where she would go or why she would even do this to us.”

The rest of the team looked about as clueless as Ward, until Fitz finally spoke up, trying to come up with a plan.

“Well, I don’t really have an answer to either of those questions yet, but maybe once I’ve analysed the data from Skye’s tracking bracelet, and figured out with what method it’s been disabled, that could give us some clues as to what she might be up to. I’m sure Skye’s disappearance wasn’t completely without a trace after all.”

The young engineer looked confident that he would be able to find a lead on their missing team mate, but Ward suddenly objected, his voice cold.

“Whatever you find, Skye can’t be our priority right now. She obviously wanted to leave, so what does it matter how she did it? I say we let HQ handle her and focus on finding Dr. O’Leary instead. If his information on Centipede is even half as valuable as he claimed, it could finally mean a breakthrough in that case. We can’t let that slip through our fingers; we have to figure out why he never showed up to the meeting he himself requested.”

“But surely we have to start searching for Skye as well, right?” Simmons suddenly chimed in, looking from Ward to Coulson and back again.

“What for?” Ward asked sharply, visibly startling the coy scientist. Completely oblivious to the surprised looks he was receiving from the entire team now, he quickly continued, explaining his objections.

“Skye bailed on us. She left me hanging out in the field and for that she quite frankly doesn’t deserve that we spend even another minute on her. And let’s say we do find her, what does that accomplish? She would just talk her way out of any serious repercussions again like she always does, just like she talked her way back onto the team the last time she betrayed us. I don’t know what it is about her, but somehow she just makes you want to believe her, to trust her, no matter what she did and right now we simply cannot afford to fall for her damn doe-eyes again.”

Finally becoming aware of the fact that his anger was getting the better of him, Ward broke off and took a deep breath to compose himself. He glanced over at Simmons, who looked back at him with an understanding expression on her face, before he started again, a lot calmer this time.

“What I’m trying to say is, Skye made her choice and we need to focus on the mission now. We have to try and catch up with O’Leary as long as there is still a trail to follow; we wasted enough time already.”

He looked straight at Coulson now, waiting for his superior to approve his proposed course of action. The older agent seemed to ponder the situation for a moment, deep in thought, until he finally nodded.

“Ward is right. We will not forget about Skye, but we cannot just abandon the operation, either. We’ll return to the Bus and see if we can get a hold of the good doctor again.”

Following their leader’s command, the rest of the team quickly packed up and got ready to move, but before Coulson himself could leave the room, May held him back once more. She waited for the others to clear out before speaking.

“Do you think he’s right? That Skye really left on her own?” The look on her face was uncertain, as the usually so guarded agent hadn’t yet decided what to think of her team mate’s disappearance.

“That would be a definite ‘no’,” Coulson answered immediately, an uneasy smile on his lips. “Whether Skye left by her own choice or not, I’m not completely sure yet, but I find it hard to believe that she could have pulled this off by herself. I want you to check if the Rising Tide might be involved in this, starting with Skye’s known associates.”

“Miles Lydon?” May asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes, him and everyone else from the group we can link him or Skye to.”

“But he’s been tagged,” Agent May pointed out, causing a wry smile to form on Coulson's lips.

“So was Skye. It seems those bracelets are not as unbreakable as we thought they were.” Looking back at the now empty room, the agent took a deep breath, trying to clear his thoughts.

“We have to find her, May. I know that this team means a lot to Skye and if she really chose to leave without warning or explanation... I’m sure that she must have had a very good reason to do so. And if she didn’t chose to leave... then we’re risking her life with every second we waste standing here talking.” A determined look on his face, Agent Coulson finally headed out of the hotel room, set on leaving no stone unturned until he had found his team’s rookie, whether she wanted him to or not.

**To be continued...**


	5. Wrong!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well, this chapter is going to be a little... heavy, but I just didn’t want to gloss over what happens to Skye and really show how high the stakes for her are.

“Ward, can you still hear me?” Skye all but shouted as she kept clutching her ear piece, desperate to keep the radio connection to her partner up while he was on his way to the meeting with Dr. O’Leary. The video from the satellite feed on the laptop in front of her was bright and clear, but for some reason the radio signal kept getting weaker and weaker despite her best efforts to fix it.

“Yes, but you’re breaking off a lot,” the specialist replied in an annoyed tone. “What the hell is going on, Skye? You said the interferences weren’t going to be a problem.”

The young hacker rolled her eyes as she could imagine the sour look on Ward’s face in this moment all too clearly, but decided not to say anything about it. He was right for once, after all.

“I know that I said that and I meant it. I don’t know what’s happening here. I’ve been trying to send the signal through another channel, I even used the satellite connection to amplify the signal strength, but nothing seems to be working. It’s like something is­—”

A loud frequency spike cut her off abruptly, causing Skye to yank her earpiece out with a startled yelp. As she moved to replace it, she quickly had to realise that the connection was dead. The hacker sighed in defeat and was about to reach for her cell phone to contact Ward this way, when her eyes fell once more on the readings she had pulled up on the laptop screen and an inspiration suddenly hit her.

“Wait, that’s not coming from the TV tower. What is that?” she mumbled to herself.

Her phone immediately forgotten, Skye went back to studying the numbers and graphs on her laptop, completely focused. So focused in fact that she didn’t even notice the door to the hotel room open noiselessly and two men in dark masks enter.

One of them was holding a small cylindrical device that he aimed at the young woman. It wasn’t a weapon, however. Instead it caused Skye’s bracelet to open with a soft click and fall from her wrist onto the table.

“Whoa,” the hacker exclaimed, startled by the seemingly random occurrence, as she hadn’t realised what was happening yet. Then she noticed the soft footsteps coming from the door, though, and sprung up, flipping her chair over in the process. As Skye turned around to face the intruders, her expression was panicked.

“Who the hell—” she started, but didn’t even get to finish the question, as one of the men lunged at her, a taser in hand. Skye felt the pain at her neck and vaguely realised as she collapsed sideways against the edge of the table, but after that the world around her went dark.

 

* * *

 

Skye was snapped out of the darkness as the door in front of her opened once again. She blinked wearily into the bright light shining in her face as she tried to move, her joints and muscles stiff from the cold and her restraint position. At least a few hours had passed since the last time her kidnapper had paid her a visit and after a while she had drifted off into an uneasy sleep, filled with even uneasier dreams, jumping awake every time she thought she’d heard a noise in the distance.

Her heart sped up as the now familiar silhouette of the man who kept her prisoner blocked out the light once more and stepped in front of her. However, Skye was determined not to let her fear show and so she faced him defiantly.

“Listen, I don’t know who you are, or who you’re working for, but I can tell you right now that I’m not going to answer your questions and betray SHIELD and my friends. Because no matter what they might be thinking of me right now, I’m not a traitor.”

“Really?” the man asked with a small chuckle. “Because I’ve heard that differently. You’ve betrayed everything your hacker friends at the Rising Tide stand for by working with SHIELD, and then you’ve betrayed your friends there by working with the Rising Tide again. That’s quite an accomplishment in such a short time. But I guess you’re just a complicated woman, right, Skye?”

The young hacker was basically fuming at these accusations, but then she remembered her resolution not to show her kidnapper how much he was getting under her skin. So instead of shouting insults, she answered in a tone so calm that it even surprised herself, while completely changing the subject in the process.

“You know, I’m starting to feel that I’m somewhat at a disadvantage in this conversation.” Looking down at herself, she cringed a little, but continued without losing her composure. “Well, aside from the fact that I’m tied to a chair and you’re the one who put me here, obviously. You seem to know an awful lot about me while I don’t even know your name.

What do I call you? I’d go with ‘Mr. Kidnapper’, but that doesn’t really have a good ring to it, does it?”

“You can call me ‘Jack’ if you want,” the man answered after a slight moment of hesitation.

“Is that your real name?” the young woman asked, one eyebrow raised in disbelief.

“Is ‘Skye’ your real name?” Jack replied, not missing a beat. This time it was Skye, who hesitated, but finally gave up.

“Fair enough,” she answered grudgingly, accepting that she wasn’t going to get her kidnapper’s real identity anyway.

There was a short moment of silence after this little exchange and Jack started to circle Skye, giving her the opportunity to see him better in the light coming from right outside the door. He had short dirty-blonde hair and a rather handsome face, but that didn’t diminish the fear she was feeling one bit. The fact that he didn’t look intimidating didn’t mean he wasn’t and Skye was afraid of what else might be lying below that harmless looking surface.

There was still no source of light inside her room, or at least no-one was turning it on, and the disparity was creating an eerie atmosphere where Skye’s entire focus was directed towards the door with the bright lamp just beyond it and the freedom it promised. The fact that Jack always left it open, when he came to her made it feel as if she could simply get up and leave, but Skye knew that that wasn’t the case. It was, however, probably precisely why he did it, in a subtle, yet highly effective way of taunting her.

“Now you had your questions, so we’re getting back to mine,” Jack suddenly announced, pulling Skye out of her thoughts and getting her to focus back on him. He was standing right in front of her again, his face once more concealed by the shadows.

“We’re going to start this simple. Tell me about your team. I want to know who’s on it, their names and specialisations.”

“Do you honestly think I’ll tell you that? As I said before, I’m not a traitor, I’m...”

There was a sudden crackling sound and a blue flash of light, cutting Skye short. The light still dancing in front of her eyes, she swallowed as her mind went back to the hotel room where the last thing she had seen had been the taser one of her kidnappers had attacked her with.

Jack sounded extremely smug as he spoke again.

“You remember this? I reduced the voltage a little so it’s not going to knock you out, but believe me, it’s still going to hurt like hell. Now, shall we try this again? Tell me about your team.”

As Jack started circling her again, Skye took a few deep breaths to calm herself, assessing her options in the process. She definitely didn’t want to be tortured, but she also wasn’t going to tell this guy anything about her team mates, either.

Sighing, she finally came to a decision.

“Alright, alright. I’ll tell you. First, there’s Agent Simon Gale, he’s our weapons expert. He’s amazing, I mean he can take a gun apart and reassemble it in like fifteen seconds and he can hit a target from miles away. He’s a real inspiration to work with and—”

“Wrong,” Jack interrupted her harshly and there was another blue flash in the shadows, this time followed by Skye’s scream, echoing from the bare walls.

“Again, your team!” Jack’s voice was menacing, but the young hacker had already understood how serious he was with his threats. She was still feeling the reality of it after all.

Panting heavily, Skye tried to compose herself again, knowing that she had to answer.

“Fine. Our team leader is Agent Morrison. He’s this super hard-ass dude, giving us all the military drill. He’s not always easy to get along with, but he looks out for his team and I really respect that. I don’t think he likes me much, though.”

Skye flinched as Jack’s voice was incredibly close to her ear the next time he spoke and once more, it was a blue flash and pain that followed.

“Wrong.”

As the pain finally subsided, Skye’s body slumped forward, exhausted. But somehow, some part of her brain had obviously decided that this was the perfect moment for her to be stubborn and stupid and so she mustered up another answer without even being prompted this time.

“The name of...” she stopped to take a few deep breaths to steady herself, then started again. “The name of our science guy is Henry Allen. He is a total legend in SHIELD and he’s already worked dozens if not hundreds of field assignments in the last two decades. He’s like a dad to the team, which I think is really nice and I like him a lot.”

“You know, I’m starting to think you’re enjoying this. Because that was wrong,” Jack answered slowly, standing in front of Skye again, the taser in his hand already activated.

The young woman stared at the crackling electricity with panic in her eyes, breathing heavily, but she knew there was no point in hoping for mercy. She tried to brace herself, but still screamed when the device hit her once more, until she finally passed out, her body too exhausted to take anymore.

**To be continued...**


	6. Secrets

They had barely been back on the plane for fifteen minutes as Coulson was standing in his office, Skye’s file in his hands. He wasn’t really reading it, though – as if there was much to read in the first place – but kept staring at the young hacker’s picture, wondering if he could have been wrong by giving her a second chance. By trusting her to become a part of the team again.

Skye had once called him an excellent judge of character, valuing her when no-one else would, but now he wasn’t so sure if that hadn’t just been her way of calling him naive. He had told her he believed in giving people second chances after he himself had gotten one, but sometimes he couldn’t help but remember the old saying, ‘fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.’

Was this the case here? Had Skye played him for a fool? Him and the entire team?

Before he could think about that any further, though, Agent May suddenly walked into his office without even bothering to knock, a tense expression on her face.

“You already found something?” Coulson asked, knowing that look all too well.

“Yes, and it’s not good. Miles Lydon is missing. His signal went dark about a week ago and SHIELD hasn’t been able to track him down yet.”

Startled by this new information, Agent Coulson put Skye’s file back on the table absentmindedly, before he crossed his arms, his expression hardening as he stared at Agent May.

“Why haven’t we been informed about that?” he demanded to know, not amused by being kept out of the loop.

“Well, considering how the last mission involving Lydon went for us, HQ didn’t want to risk anything. They sent another team, and they have been able to confirm that a small group of men, most likely with a paramilitary background, has been searching for Lydon before his disappearance. The agents couldn’t find out what exactly their agenda was, though.”

For a moment Coulson’s eyes wandered back to the picture of Skye in the open folder on the table and he took a deep breath, trying to make sense of this new development. When he focused back on May, the look in his eyes was determined.

“So he was probably kidnapped,” Coulson concluded slowly, “and whatever it is this group needs a world class hacker for, they might just have decided that two are even better than one.” He had picked up Skye’s file once again and was waving it in May’s face, but the other agent didn’t seem entirely convinced.

“Or, they could have simply recruited him. We already know that Lydon has no problem with forgetting his morals for money and if these people have found a way to disable our tags, that would have been an even bigger motivation for him to work for them.”

“Maybe, but not for Skye,” Coulson objected immediately. “You heard what Ward said, she was looking forward to having the bracelet removed by _us_ , not by some paramilitary group looking to hire her. And she never cared about money.”

“We don’t even know yet, if the two incidents are actually related,” May pointed out, but Coulson simply looked at her with raised eyebrows and the agent quickly conceded, rolling her eyes.

“Although I admit that would have been quite the coincidence, Skye’s former boyfriend and her both going missing within a week. What do you want to do with this information?”

Coulson sighed as he tried to think of the best course of action.

“We’re not going to tell the team yet. I want them to remain focused on finding O’Leary and his information about Centipede. I’ll contact HQ myself, see if I can dig something up.”

May simply nodded and turned to leave, knowing that there was still a lot of work to be done. She was almost out of the door, when Coulson called after her once more.

“And May,” he waited for the agent to turn around before continuing, “we _will_ find her.”

“I don’t doubt that for a second, I’m just not sure what we’ll discover once we do,” she replied with a hint of caution in her voice, leaving Coulson alone with his thoughts.

 

* * *

 

Ward was busy using the plane’s main computer, while Fitzsimmons were hovering over him, both of them talking incessantly, discussing Skye’s disappearance.

“Why would she do that? Just leave, I mean. I know she lied to us before, but that was different, she didn’t just disappear. And also, her boyfriend was involved that time, and he isn’t anymore, right? I mean, he isn’t her boyfriend anymore.” The engineer stopped only for a second, thinking about his arguments, before continuing hurriedly. “And he also isn’t involved this time, so I don’t understand why she just left.”

“Fitz, shut up!” Ward ordered, pinching the bridge of his nose to fight off the beginnings of the headache he always got when he was exposed to the scientist’s ramblings for too long. “You heard our orders; we’re supposed to search for Dr. O’Leary, but if you’re not going to help with that, you might as well go on to the lab and play with your little robots or whatever you do down there most of the time.”

Completely ignoring both the order and the insult, Fitz kept pacing and addressed Simmons once more.

“I just don’t get why she wouldn’t say anything. She really came around after that whole ‘Miles’ situation, didn’t she? So for her to leave us with nothing but that joke of a letter – it doesn’t make sense. It just doesn’t.”

Realising that he wasn’t going to be able to work in silence anytime soon, Ward turned away from the computer table to face Fit, a sympathetic expression in his eyes.

“Look, I know you guys consider Skye your friend, and that you want to believe in her, but you’re going to have to accept that you can never truly know a person. Especially not one with as many secrets as her.”

Ignoring most of what Ward had said once again, Fitz looked at him incredulously.

“What, so you’re saying that you and Skye aren’t friends?” he asked, eyeing the agent in surprise.

“Well, not since she bailed on me in the middle of an operation,” Ward replied without hesitation, “but I was also her S.O. which means that there had to be some level of professional distance between us. You three just always seemed to get along more... naturally, I suppose.”

Fitz smiled a little at that as if Ward had just given him a compliment, but in the end he shook his head negative.

“No, we’re all her friends and I’m sure she would never leave you hanging like that, either.”

“But she did,” the taller agent objected matter-of-factly, shaking his head.

“There’s got to be another explanation,” Fitz kept insisting, but before Ward could reply anything, Agent May suddenly entered the room, looking as cold and composed as ever.

“Did you find anything yet?” she asked, coming straight to the point.

“No, nothing,” Ward replied immediately, instantly focused again. “We’re running facial recognition for Dr. O’Leary through every surveillance camera we could find in the city, including traffic and ATMs, but so far we got nothing. As far as I can tell, he didn’t even get near our meeting point. But –” he drew the word out slowly, obviously having a hard time admitting what he was about to say next, “and you can believe that I hate saying this – Skye was much better at these things than I am. We could really use someone with her skill set on this.”

Without the team noticing, Coulson had just entered the room, startling everyone when he suddenly spoke.

“I just got off the phone with HQ and we’ve actually been discussing the very same thing. That’s why they’re going to send us some backup, an agent from the counter intelligence department.”

Ward seemed relieved by this news, as it prevented him from further having to work in a field he wasn’t comfortable in, while Fitzsimmons were obviously taken completely by surprise, both of them looking a little uneasy.

May on the other hand was watching Coulson closely and that brief look he suddenly gave her pretty much confirmed her suspicion that there was something more to this reinforcement than he was letting on right now. She just needed a moment to talk to him in private to find out the truth.

**To be continued...**


	7. Have It Your Way

When Skye woke up again, she was alone in her cell, absolute darkness surrounding her. She had completely lost her sense of time and couldn’t even tell if it was day or night, as no light from the outside made it into her room.

While she had never been particularly afraid of the dark, she had to admit that this complete blackness around her was starting to take its toll on her. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest as she kept glancing around, imagining that she had heard a sound.

It must have been over an hour later when there was actually a faint noise coming from one of the walls, a shuffling and the scurrying of small feet, and Skye almost jumped out of her skin before she realised that rats were probably the least of her problems right now.

Time seemed to crawl as she kept sitting in silence in her pitch-black cell, knowing that screaming for help wouldn’t do her much good. If there had been anyone close enough to hear her, they would have certainly alarmed the police by now, after all the times she had screamed in pain during Jack’s last visit. Her throat still felt sore at this point and the fact that she hadn’t had anything to drink in ages certainly wasn’t helping, either.

Her mind kept wandering, as there wasn’t really anything else to do, and as Skye thought about Ward and the rest of her team, her friends, she couldn’t help but wonder what they were thinking about her right now.

Had Jack’s ruse really been so effective that they all believed her to be a traitor? She still remembered vividly how much it had hurt to face Coulson again after she had deceived the team to warn Miles, but it hadn’t been nearly as bad as the silent treatment she had received from Ward for weeks afterwards.

But she had been able to fix all of that, more or less at least. She had worked hard to make it up to everyone and if their last exchange before the mission was anything to go by, Ward had finally forgiven her for her betrayal.

Now, however, they were right back at the start, or probably even worse, and Skye realised with horror that should she die in this cell and the team never found her, Ward’s last memory of her would always be how she had betrayed him in the worst possible way: by abandoning him in the middle of an operation and all she could do about that now was hope and pray that this wasn’t going to be the end for her.

Ripping her out of her thoughts, there was a noise coming from outside and Skye realised after a second that it was the sound of footsteps quickly getting closer. A moment later the door opened and the bright light from the hallway blinded her once more until her eyes slowly adjusted to it.

As Jack entered the room, Skye blinked at him, her vision only gradually returning, and it took her a moment until she noticed the bottle of water in his hand. Once she had noticed it, though, she found that despite her best efforts not to, she couldn’t stop staring at it. She was so thirsty by now that she was afraid she might pass out again any minute, despite the next round of torture she knew was coming not even having begun yet.

After he had set the bottle down on the ground, Jack faced her again, his arms crossed in front of him.

“Are you feeling a little more like talking today?” he asked, but clearly not very confident to find the young woman more cooperative this time.

“Depends on the topic, I guess,” Skye answered quickly, sounding almost like her usual cheerful self. “You wanna talk about clothes, or hacking maybe? Politics’ a bit boring if you ask me and I’m sorry, but I don’t do sports; but other than that I’m sure we’ll find something to talk about.” She was doing her best to not let her real emotions shine through, but Jack wasn’t falling for the act.

“You’re a funny girl, aren’t you? Putting up this brave front, but I know deep inside you’re already shaking with fear.”

As Skye was determined to defy her kidnapper for as long as possible, she replied in a brisk tone, her voice unwavering.

“The only reason why I might be shaking is ‘cause it’s fricking cold in here. Would it kill you to turn up the heat for once?”

Jack remained completely unfazed and kept looking down at her in a calm demeanour.

“So you’re not going to tell me about your team, I take it.”

“No, I’m not,” Skye replied determinedly.

“Alright,” Jack answered, before pulling out the taser once more and attacking Skye with it without wasting another second.

Taken by surprise by the attack, the young woman hadn’t been prepared for the pain and screamed loudly when it hit her. Not that it got any better each and every time Jack repeated his earlier questions and she either refused to answer or just made something up, causing him to taser her again.

An eternity seemed to have passed until Jack finally stopped the interrogation and went over to pick up the water bottle he had brought with him. He unscrewed it and took a large sip, all of it very slowly so he could be sure that his prisoner got to see every second of it. Much to her dismay, Skye had to admit that his little display was actually working, because even though she knew that he was just trying to tempt her into cooperating with him, she couldn’t keep her eyes off the water, either.

“I tell you what,” Jack finally announced as he put the bottle back to the ground, “you give me a name and I’ll give you some of the water. Easy as that.”

But Skye wasn’t bribed so quickly and so she replied only with a quick shake of her head, still refusing to give up her friends. Jack sighed and looked at her for a long moment in silence, but when Skye already thought that he might give up on interrogating her for now, he suddenly hit her across the face with a resounding slap, the powerful blow making her vision spin.

“You think you can keep resisting? You can try, but I promise you that I will not leave this room until you tell me everything I want to know. You can spare yourself a lot of pain by cooperating.” Jack’s voice was sharp, cutting right into her, and Skye knew that he had meant every word. As she didn’t trust herself to come up with a sarcastic retort right now, she merely kept her eyes firmly on the ground, not saying a word.

“Fine, have it your way, then,” Jack announced as he took out the taser yet again and activated it, advancing on his prisoner. The defenceless young woman tried to close her eyes against the pain, but it overwhelmed her anyway, causing her agonised screams to fill the stale air of the room once more.

Skye couldn’t tell how long this went on – minutes, hours – but when Jack finally stopped for a moment, her mind was completely blank and her body trembling. Even her tears had stopped falling, as she was simply too exhausted to cry anymore.

Jack was now circling her once again, giving her the time to catch her breath. Skye knew it was only a matter of seconds, though, before he would approach her again, ready to continue where he had left off; and when he did, something inside of her finally gave in. She just couldn’t take it anymore.

She had tried to will the pain away, to distract herself from it by clinging on to better memories, but nothing had helped. Every fibre of her body was screaming in pain and she just wanted it to stop – _needed_ it to stop – no matter what she had to do for that.

“Stop,” she begged, sobbing silently, before Jack could hurt her again. “Please.”

“You know what I want to hear; come on, give me something, Skye!” He sounded as if he was cheering her on, his good mood only making her defeat feel so much worse. But there was no turning back now and so Skye finally answered.

“Ward,” she uttered silently in between her sobs, her voice barely audible.

“What was that?” Jack asked with a triumphant grin on his face. “Say it again.”

“Agent Grand Ward,” Skye repeated, more clearly this time, although her voice still sounded broken and was constricted with tears. But even though she knew that her defences had crumbled and she wasn’t able to hold out against the torture anymore, a small part of her still hadn’t given up hope. She just had to believe that help was coming and so she looked up at Jack, a small spark of defiance still shining in her eyes.

“He’s the one who will kick your ass… no,” she stopped and corrected herself, her expression becoming even fiercer, “he’s the one who will kill you for this.”

Still grinning, Jack leaned down to her and grabbed Skye’s chin in one hand, forcing her to keep looking at him.

“Keep believing he’s coming to save you if you want. Hell, I don’t care if you think Santa and his fucking reindeers are coming for you as long as you give me the information I want. But, that was a very good first step and I want you to know that I’m a man who always keeps his word.”

He let her go to unscrew the water bottle and then held it up to her mouth to drink, which Skye did eagerly. She hated herself for giving in, but at the same time she was also just glad for the pain to be over. Each gulp of water she took was a wave of relief washing through her and it felt far too soon when Jack suddenly pulled the bottle away again.

“There’s a lot more where this came from, but that was all you’ve earned yourself so far. Now, the rest of your team.” He was standing back in front of her again, his arms crossed and his demeanour as threatening as ever.

Swallowing hard, Skye knew that she had no choice, if she didn’t want the torture to continue. She closed her eyes for a second, as she didn’t want to face what she was about to do. That she was about to become the traitor she had always claimed she wasn’t.

“Coulson. Agent Phil Coulson, he’s our team leader.”

Grinning in triumph, Jack glanced over at the small camera hidden in one of the corners behind Skye as he listened to the hacker giving him everything he had wanted to hear. The others would be pleased.

**To be continued...**


	8. Haze

It had been long past midnight when Agent Ward had finally returned to his bunk to get at least a few hours of sleep after he had spent the entire evening and half the night searching for a lead on the missing scientist Dr. O’Leary. It had all been to no avail, however, as he hadn’t been able to find even the smallest trace of him.

But at least it had kept him busy and his thoughts occupied, as he now realised, because now that he was lying in his bed and had nothing else to do, he couldn’t stop his mind from wandering back to Skye and her disappearance.

 _So long_. Just thinking about that laughably short note she had left him with made his temper rise, so Ward tried to get his mind off it and calm down again. He didn’t even know who he was angrier with, Skye, for leaving, or himself, for believing all of her assertions that she wanted to be a part of the group again.

He started thinking back to Fitz’s insistence that something about Skye’s disappearance wasn’t right, and he couldn’t help but wonder why it was so hard for him and Simmons to accept the truth. To accept that sometimes even the ones you trusted the most could betray you.

He had once accused Skye of being naive and not understanding how the world out there really worked, but of course deep down he knew that the same was just as true, if not even more so, for the two scientists. He just forgot sometimes that despite their doctor titles they were still very young and inexperienced when it came to field work.

They hadn’t realised yet, that trusting someone in the field meant putting your life in their hands. That was why in this line of work there was no middle ground. Either you could trust someone completely, or you couldn’t. And Skye had proven now without a doubt that she firmly belonged in the second category.

As Ward tried to finally get some sleep, he crossed his arms behind his head to relax, after a while feeling himself drifting off slowly. That is until a noise from outside of his bunk suddenly startled him.

He thought he heard a voice and laughter coming from the corridor, so Ward got up reluctantly to investigate. The door to his bunk slid open without making a sound as he pulled the handle, revealing the dimly lit interior of the plane. He stepped outside and looked around, but at first everything seemed to be quiet. However, as he looked towards the lounge area, he suddenly spotted a figure standing there, looking straight at him. A very familiar figure.

“Skye!” he uttered in surprise and shock as he recognised the woman dressed in an alarmingly pink dress, but instead of replying anything, she turned around and quickly disappeared towards the other end of the plane. He heard a soft giggling and recognised her voice immediately, so he followed, shouting Skye’s name again, but as he reached the spot where she had vanished from his sight, she was gone again.

He turned around and looked in all directions frantically, until he finally spotted a flash of pink moving in the direction of the cargo bay. He went after her like before, only to have her stay one step ahead of him at every turn, the hallways and rooms of the plane becoming a maze as he chased after the young woman.

“Skye, stop running, damn it,” he yelled in frustration, making a 360° spin as he tried to figure out where she had vanished to now.

“Skye!” But the only response he got was the giggling from before and Ward seethed with anger at the thought of the brunette laughing at him. He was just about to shout for her once more as he heard a door being slammed shut loudly and he could instantly tell by the direction of the noise that it had come from Coulson’s office.

A confident smile appeared on the agent’s face as he made his way up the circular staircase, because he knew that Skye would be trapped if she had gone into their C.O.’s office.

He opened the door to the office slowly and grinned victoriously as the woman in the pink dress was really inside, standing in front of the desk, her back turned to him. Even from behind, he recognised the outfit as the one Skye had been wearing on their mission in Malta, when she had infiltrated Ian Quinn’s compound, but he stopped short for a moment as he noticed that both the dress and the girl wearing it were completely drenched, like she had been at the end of that operation.

“There’s no use in running anymore, Skye, I got you.” She was still dripping with water as she finally turned around and Ward’s breath caught in his throat the second he got a better look at her.

There was a bloody gunshot wound in Skye’s chest, her skin as pale as death and the look in her eyes vacant as she barely seemed to recognise the agent in front of her.

“Grant?” she whispered, but before he could reply anything, the young woman suddenly collapsed, her severe injury catching up with her. Ward lunched forward instinctively and caught her just in time to lower her to the ground gently.

“Skye! Skye, can you hear me?” The agent was scared out of his mind seeing her like this and he grabbed her hand, trying to reassure the both of them, as he kept staring at her, waiting for any kind of reaction.

“Skye, please, say something,” he urged her, slightly calmer this time. “Tell me what happened. Where were you, why didn’t you tell me where you went? How am I supposed to protect you if I don’t even know where you are?” Ward’s voice became increasingly panicked as there was still no reaction from the young woman. He tried to feel for her pulse, but couldn’t find anything.

“No! No, no, no, no, no! Skye!” He cried out her name in pain as the realisation that the young woman was gone struck him and the cry carried over from the dream into reality, finally ripping the agent out of his uneasy sleep.

Agent Ward was still lying in his bed, his skin now drenched in sweat and the sheet tangled around him. He took a steadying breath, sat up, groaning, and glanced at the clock telling him that it was only 4:30 in the morning.

He briefly considered going back to sleep, as he could definitely use some more rest, but as he was still feeling pretty shaken after the nightmare he had just had, he quickly decided against it and instead got up to get a head start on the day.

After making his way out of his bunk, Ward immediately went to get a shower to wake himself up properly and to chase away the lingering tension still in his body after that dream. He was glad that he didn’t run into anybody of the others on the way, though that wasn’t very surprising at this early hour.

As he entered the bathroom, he turned on the water and got undressed, all the while feeling as if his body was running on fumes. He was used to getting along with little sleep, but for some reason this time was different. Maybe the dream had had him more rattled than he liked to admit, but whatever it was, Ward instantly felt better as he stepped into the shower, leaning with his hands against the wall, just letting the water run over his exhausted body.

And while he stood there under the streaming water, the heat turned up just a little bit higher than what was really comfortable, he finally felt his muscles relax again and his head clear up.

His thoughts went back to the dream once more, and he couldn’t help wondering if there might actually be something to it. Was Skye really in danger or was this just Fitz’s nagging getting to him? He sighed deeply, unable to come up with any satisfying answer, so he closed his eyes instead and tried to push any thought about the brunette hacker to the back of his mind.

Skye wasn’t his priority right now, she couldn’t be. He had a mission that came first and to keep himself from being distracted any further, he decided to get back to that as quickly as possible. So he turned off the shower and hurried to return to work again.

Ward had been in the bathroom a lot longer than it would usually take him to get ready in the morning and so it was already shortly after 5 am when he finally made his way to the command centre to work at the computer there. He stopped dead in his tracks on the way as he noticed to his surprise that all the monitors inside were working, the area brightly illuminated in contrast to the otherwise dark plane.

He quickly realised that there was someone in there and for a split second his mind tried to play tricks on him, leading him to believe that the woman working at the computer was Skye. His heart actually started to beat faster, and yet he knew that it wasn’t true.

In fact, ward had never seen this woman before and as she appeared to be so focused on her work that she didn’t even notice him as he walked closer, he took a moment to study her appearance and get a first read on her.

Judging by her professional looking dark grey pants suit, she was definitely a SHIELD agent – probably the backup Coulson had mentioned yesterday – but her complete lack of situational awareness told Ward immediately that she wasn’t used to going into the field. Coulson had said that HQ would send someone from counter intelligence, but somehow he had been hoping for a more experienced and proficient agent, and not another computer whiz he would have to babysit in a fire fight.

“Are you just going to stand there Agent Ward or do you actually plan on introducing yourself?” Completely caught off guard by the question, Ward struggled to come up with an answer for a second, but in the end, the new arrival beat him to it as she turned around to face him.

She was wearing a blue blouse, the material slightly crinkled as if she had been wearing it a while, and her dark blonde hair had been tied up into a knot, although a few strands had gotten loose by now. The jacket of her suit was lying over the table in the corner and Ward noticed that it was still in perfect condition as if the agent had been taking it off whenever she could.

She was now standing in front of him, her hand extended in greeting as she smiled at him kindly, though obviously a little tired.

“I’m Agent Rebecca Haze. Agent Coulson said you were one computer expert short at the moment and could use some help on the case you’re working, so HQ assigned me to your team for the time being. Nice to meet you,” she finished with an even brighter smile, causing Ward to finally return the greeting and shake her hand firmly.

“Agent Grant Ward, but I figure you already know that,” he replied, a little wary.

“Yes, I hope you don’t blame me for reading up on the team I was going to work with, first. I was just about to leave work yesterday evening when I suddenly got orders to get on a plane to join you here, so I thought a little reading material for the way couldn’t hurt. In fact, I just arrived a few minutes ago, but I figured I might as well get to work immediately. Agent Coulson said I should make myself at home.”

As if on cue, the team’s C.O. suddenly walked into the command centre, two cups of coffee in his hands, but paused as he noticed Ward.

“Ah, I see you two have met, already.” Looking down at the steaming cups, he added: “I knew I should have made more.”

**To be continued...**


	9. That Part Of You That’s Trying To Resist

There was a single tear sliding down Skye’s cheek as she finished telling Jack everything she knew about her team mates, from their specialisations and abilities to their personalities and the relationships that had formed between them. She hated herself for doing this, was appalled at how easily the words came from her mouth that betrayed the people who had become like family to her during these past months of working with them.

Jack was leaning back against the wall next to the exit almost casually while the door still remained open, taunting Skye with its fake promise of freedom. He had been asking her countless questions about her team for the past hour, but the more time had passed, the more the whole exchange had shifted from an interrogation to a conversation as Skye’s resistance had crumbled.

She was going to tell him anyway, to avoid further torture, so what was the point of prolonging the inevitable? And, as she kept telling herself, it wasn’t as if this was the most sensitive information, anyway. Many people had been in contact with her team so far and knew their names and skills and only a few of those had had any form of high level clearance. For the moment Skye remained confident in her belief that even this detailed information on her friends in their enemies’ hands wasn’t putting them in any more danger than they could handle.

A few moments after Skye had fallen silent, Jack pushed himself off the wall and approached her slowly, looking down at the bound young woman with approval. She avoided his gaze by keeping her eyes locked on the ground, but his voice told Skye immediately how much he was satisfied by her obedient behaviour. The thought alone made her feel sick again.

“Now that wasn’t so hard, was it? As I told you from the beginning, as long as you cooperate, there’s no reason for me to mistreat you or resort to more drastic measures.” He crouched down in front of Skye, so they were on eye level and she had to look at him.

“Just keep answering my questions truthfully and I won’t have to hurt you again. Though I’ll admit, some of those lies you came up with were at least entertaining,” he admitted with a crooked grin.

Skye looked into Jack’s eyes in silence for a moment, his words echoing in her mind as a realisation suddenly hit her. Something that should have been obvious to her for a long time, but it was as if the pain from the torture and her desperation over her situation had been too much for her to think straight and make the connection. Now, however, it had finally clicked and her entire struggle to defy Jack and withstand the torture suddenly seemed laughable and pointless to her.

“You knew, didn’t you?” Her kidnapper’s expression remained unreadable, so Skye continued, even though she was sure he had understood her perfectly.

“You knew about my team, who’s on it, their specialisations, everything. That’s how you could always tell when I was lying. Because you already had all the information anyway.”

Jack had stood up again by now and was facing Skye with his arms crossed in front of his chest as he looked down at her, an air of amusement surrounding him.

“You played me,” the young woman all but shouted, feeling mocked by the expression on her kidnapper’s face. “You tortured me for hours, and for what? For something you already knew? What would you do that for?”

“I told you those were the easy questions, didn’t I? You and I, we first had to build a relationship where I could trust that you’re telling me the truth. You really think I would start with questions I didn’t already have the answers to?”

Jack’s reply was so matter-of-factly that Skye felt even stupider that it had taken her this long to figure out the purpose of his questions. But, as she quickly realised, this development let to another issue.

“How? How did you know all this? Who told you?” she demanded to know, but Jack clearly didn’t appreciate the sudden change in his prisoner’s attitude. Without warning, he hit Skye across the face once more, causing her lip to crack and blood to spill over her chin.

“You think _you’re_ asking the questions now?” he asked, the thinly veiled threat cutting through the air; but Skye was too furious to be intimidated. She kept staring daggers at Jack as she replied angrily.

“You think I’ll be _answering_ any questions now? If you already have a source telling you about SHIELD, why am I even here? Just let me go already. Let me go!” She shouted the last part furiously and even though it wasn’t achieving anything, she vigorously tried to pull her arms free from the duct tape binding her.

Jack sighed as he watched Skye struggle in vain against her restraints for a few moments, then reached into a pocket of his jacket and pulled out a small case with a syringe in it. After making sure there was no air left in it, he crossed the small distance between him and Skye and grabbed her arm tightly to hold it still, even though the young woman was still thrashing around violently.

“You brought this on yourself, so quit struggling,” he hissed as he jabbed the needle into her arm.

After that it only took a few seconds for Skye to calm down, her movements becoming slower, her thoughts fuzzier.

“What did you... Why are you doing this?” she asked faintly, her speech beginning to slur, but Jack didn’t answer. As her eyelids began to droop, the last thing the young woman saw was him pulling out a knife from a sheath on his belt, then the world around her vanished in darkness.

 

* * *

 

As Skye regained consciousness, she felt so tired and exhausted that it took several moments for her to even open her eyes. She wearily raised a hand to her face to rub the sleep away, but after a few seconds she stopped the movement, suddenly realising to her surprise that she was even able to do so.

Her eyes finally flew open and the first thing Skye noticed was that she wasn’t tied to a chair anymore, but was instead lying on a simple mattress on the floor, her hands and feet untied, free to move around. Unlike before, it wasn’t dark around her anymore, either. A single light bulb was hanging from the ceiling, providing a stark, but reassuring light that filled the small room she was currently held in.

The position of the door and the width of the room told Skye immediately that this wasn’t the same cell as before and for some reason that fact alone sent a wave of relief rushing through her. All the pain she had had to endure in that place had caused her to subconsciously associate it with her terror and surely the fact that Jack had taken her out of there and brought her here could only mean that things would get better. Right?

Skye slowly rose into a sitting position, when the light suddenly flickered a little, sending a surge of panic through her. As it instantly came back on, however, she relaxed again and then finally started to look around her new prison more thoroughly, causing her to notice something on the ground next to the door.

A plastic cup with a clear liquid – water, as Skye determined by testing it carefully – and a candy bar had been left for her. The young woman knew of course that consuming anything her kidnappers gave her might be a bad idea, but given the facts that she hadn’t eaten anything in forever and that there hadn’t been anything wrong with the water Jack had given her earlier, she didn’t hesitate long before digging into her meagre meal.

She had already finished most of the drink and half the candy bar when she started to wonder how long it might be until she would receive anything else. Getting her food and water on a regular basis was apparently not one of Jack’s concerns, but then again, he obviously wasn’t going to let her starve, either. But ultimate it was the rumbling of her stomach that made the decision for her and Skye finished the rest of the candy and the water, feeling at least somewhat relieved.

Now that she had eaten, Skye stood up clumsily, her legs still a little shaky from being forced to sit for so long. The first thing she did was try to open the door, remembering that the one in her old room had actually been unlocked, as she had been unable to escape anyway.

It didn’t really come as a surprise when she found that this one was indeed locked, but Skye still sighed a little in disappointment as her hand tried to turn the handle without success. The door made an extremely sturdy impression and as it wasn’t like she had any tools at her disposal, there wasn’t really anything she could do to get through it. The same was true for the rest of the room as well, which was windowless and consisted only of bare brick walls, just like her previous prison had.

As she couldn’t think of anything else to do, Skye went back over to the mattress, starting to wonder what the reason for this sudden relocation could have been. Was Jack trying to encourage her to give him more information about SHIELD by treating her better, now that she had started to cooperate?

But even though that idea did seem to make a certain amount of sense, she would have thought that her little episode right before he had drugged her would have undone any progress she might have made in Jack’s book.

She still couldn’t believe that he had played her like that. That he had tortured her endlessly, while only asking for information he had already known.

At this point, though, Skye’s mind went back to the question she had asked him in return and her brow furrowed in confusion. How exactly was it that Jack already had this information, anyway? Had someone involved in one of their cases sold them out or was it even another SHIELD agent who had given up her team? The young hacker quickly shook her head at the last thought. If Jack already had an agent of SHIELD giving him information, either because they had been tortured as well or voluntarily betrayed the organisation, what would he even need her for?

She realised that she didn’t have enough pieces of the puzzle yet, for all of this to make any sense, but one thing was for certain. Someone had been telling Jack a lot of details about her team and there was no telling what else he already knew. So once the interrogation resumed – and it was only a matter of time before it did, better accommodation or not – she had no way of knowing when she could get away with a clever lie or when Jack would start torturing her again to get the truth out of her.

However, figuring there was no point in getting worked up in advance about whatever else Jack would do to her, Skye decided to make the best of her current situation and get as much rest as possible. She lay back down on the mattress, staring up at the ceiling above, and soon found that her body actually relaxed a little, despite the still grim circumstances. After more than a day of being tied to a chair, just being able to lie down again was an immense relief.

Not that she could tell for certain how long it had been since Jack had kidnapped her. With all the times she had been drugged, passed out or simply drifted off to sleep, it was impossible to say how much time had passed.

Skye briefly wondered if the others still believed that she had abandoned them, if Ward was still as hurt and angry as she knew he would be or if maybe they had figured out that something was wrong, after all.

She didn’t allow herself to dwell on that thought for long, though, as it simply hurt too much to so much as think about her team. Her friends. Most likely they weren’t searching for her at all, and even if they were, how would they possibly find her?

No, as far as Skye was concerned, she was on her own now. She just needed to wait for the right opportunity to escape by herself. And to do that, she needed to live long enough and not give Jack any reason to kill her.

About half an hour passed by in silence while Skye pondered her next move. The light bulb above her flickered a few more times, each time startling her and sending a new wave of dread through her, but so far it kept working. Then, out of nowhere, the sound of a key turning in the door caused Skye to rise from the mattress, anticipation, but also fear clearly evident in her eyes as she backed up against the far wall and stared at the door.

Jack entered slowly and Skye’s eyes immediately went to the gun he was holding in his hand, panic that he might have decided to kill her now, after all, spreading through her.

“Hello, Skye,” Jack greeted her friendly, as if oblivious to her terrified state. “Do you like your new room?” He gestured around the confined space with the gun, sending another wave of terror through the young woman. As she didn’t answer him right away, Jack cocked his head to the side, his eyes narrowing ever so slightly.

“I asked you a question,” he said as he trained the gun directly at Skye’s face. “Do you like it?”

“Yes,” she answered quickly, nodding her head frantically. “Yes, it’s lovely.” The panic in her voice was unmistakable, but Jack acted as if he didn’t hear it at all and actually smiled as he replied.

“Good. I thought you might like to get out of that chair. And I see you’ve already eaten.” He glanced down at the empty plastic cup and candy bar wrapper at his feet.

“Yes,” Skye replied without hesitation this time, “but it wasn’t much.” Jack’s expression darkened at this point and Skye instantly knew that she had said something wrong.

“No, it wasn’t, was it?” His voice was menacing as he took a step towards Skye, the muzzle of his gun still aiming between her eyes. “But the thing is, Skye, you haven’t really earned yourself anything else, or would you disagree?”

Tears rushed into the young woman’s eyes and her breath caught in her throat as she was suddenly sure she was going to die now. Her screaming at Jack earlier had simply been too much and now she was about to pay the price for her thoughtless behaviour.

“I’m sorry,” she uttered weakly, not knowing what else to say. “I... I didn’t mean to act like that, I was just... I was stupid and I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” She was openly crying now, tears streaming from her eyes as Jack kept watching her silently.

After a seemingly endless moment, he suddenly flipped the safety on the gun back on and tucked it behind his back under his belt, completely startling Skye.

“Alright. Let’s get back to business then, shall we?” he asked, but the young hacker wasn’t following his words at all.

“What?” she uttered in confusion, the fear for her life she had felt just moments ago only slowly releasing its grip on her.

“Well, we had been making quite the progress earlier, before you got yourself a little worked up there. You had been about to tell me everything about SHIELD you know, so let’s just continue where we left off.”

Still unable to come to terms with the sudden mood change, Skye kept staring at Jack, completely dumbfounded.

“But... but I don’t understand. You were just about to shoot me, weren’t you? And now everything’s fine again, just like that?” Jack chuckled slightly at her confusion, which only irritated Skye further.

“You think I was going to shoot you for screaming at me? Don’t worry, I wasn’t. I just needed you to remember who lays out the rules here, that’s all.”

And that was when it hit Skye. Jack had been playing with her again, just like before. First him releasing her from the chair, even giving her a place to lie down and something to eat, then threatening her so much that she actually started fearing for her life. It was a perfect carrot–and–stick approach if she had ever seen one.

Exhausted by the rollercoaster of emotions she had been going through in the past few minutes, Skye leaned back against the wall, staring at Jack with uncertainty. She simply couldn’t get over how he seemed to be one step ahead of her at all times and it made her feel even more vulnerable than her current situation was doing anyway.

She flinched as he suddenly walked over to her and grabbed her arm, but now that he had put away the gun, at least the fear of imminent death had vanished. Jack pulled her further into the centre of the room, his eyes fixed on Skye’s, who was doing her best to avoid his gaze. He clasped his free hand around her chin to make her hold still, then slowly began to speak, his voice dropping to a whisper.

“There’s still that part of you that’s trying to resist me, hoping for help or thinking you might get out of here on your own. But you won’t, so the sooner you let go of that part, the easier all of this will be.”

Skye’s heart was beating loudly in her chest, fear, anger and desperation causing a surge of adrenaline to pump through her system. Once again it was as if Jack could see right through her and read her mind before she herself even knew what she was thinking. And she knew that whoever it was, who wanted all this information from her, it wasn’t a coincidence that they had sent Jack to get it. He must have already had a lot of experience with interrogating people, manipulating them to get what he wanted and Skye was sure that it was only a matter of time until she would give him everything she knew as well.

But just as Jack let go of her chin again, and his grip on her arm loosened slightly, the light bulb above them flickered once more and this time went out completely.

Maybe it was all the time she had spent in complete darkness over the past days or just her survival instinct kicking in, but for whatever reason, it was Skye, who recovered first from the sudden lack of light. Relying blindly on the months of training with Ward, she twisted herself out of Jack’s grasp, reached behind his back and pulled out the gun tugged under his belt.

Backing away from him, she released the safety of the weapon with trembling fingers, just as the light flickered back on, revealing a completely changed scene.

Skye was standing with her back against the far wall of the room once more, the gun in her hands pointing at Jack, who was standing directly between her and the exit. His eyes locked on his own weapon being trained on him for a second, before he focused on the young woman, his expression extremely cocky for someone in his position. He lifted his hands a little as if surrendering, but his behaviour still suggested that he was actually the one in control.

“So, have you ever even aimed a gun at somebody?” he asked, obviously not worried at all. Skye just shrugged, trying not to show how terrified she was at the moment.

“I’m training to be a SHIELD agent. Sure I have.”

But as usual, Jack seemed to be able to see right through the brave front she was putting on and continued confidently without missing a beat.

“Well, then I assume you already shot someone, too, right? Watched them die, knowing it was you who ended their life?”

Skye’s growing uneasiness was written all over her face at this point and her mouth opened and closed a few times as if she was trying to say something, but couldn’t find the right words.

“No?” Jack wondered almost kindly, his voice soft and understanding. “Didn’t think so. Now then, let’s stop wasting time with this charade and get back to our conversation. I still have _so_ many questions.” He approached Skye slowly, his hand outstretched to take the gun from her, but she suddenly jerked backwards in fear. Without even realising what she was doing, her fingers clenched tightly and she pulled the trigger.

**To be continued...**


	10. That Someone Somewhere

Ward stood with his arms crossed in front of his chest in the back of the command centre and watched Agent Haze work at the computer table. Her fingers were flying over the keyboard with the speed and precision of someone far more used to – and especially comfortable with – using a computer as both their main tool and weapon, than him. Which was exactly why he was so glad that he had been able to hand the research work over to her. Because even though the task had kept his mind busy, Ward was already itching to get back into the field and track down their only current lead on Centipede, Doctor O’Leary, the old-fashioned way.

At the moment, all the information they had on the scientist was displayed on the various monitors of the command centre and Agent Haze was skimming through financial records, employment details and phone bills, searching for a clue on his current whereabouts. But so far, nothing.

This had been going on for a while, when the agent suddenly slammed both her palms on the table and heaved a heavy sigh of frustration.

“This is getting ridiculous,” she exclaimed almost angrily. “It’s like O’Leary’s dropped off the face of the earth.” Trying to come up with a new angle for their approach, Ward stepped closer to the computer and looked down at the display.

“Did you manage to find anything new on that organisation he’s working for?”

“The Maher Foundation?” Agent Haze asked, prompting a short nod from Ward.

“Yeah, I didn’t really get anywhere looking into them,” he replied, but the female agent just shook her head negative.

“No, me neither. All the records on them check out, and I couldn’t find any traces of criminal activity or Centipede being involved, but they’re a secretive bunch. No one was willing to talk to me about their employees or any projects they might be running at the moment. Even if the foundation as a whole is legit and Centipede is just using one of their branches as a front, it was still a very good choice. Without someone on the inside it’s going to be pretty much impossible to get any substantial information on them.”

“Which brings us back to having to find Dr. O’Leary first,” Ward concluded, barely suppressing a sigh. “It’s like we’re going around in circles.”

“Agreed.” The voice had come from the door, startling the two agents and causing them to turn around, only to find Agent Coulson leaning against the door frame with his arms crossed in front of his chest. Neither of them could tell how long he had been standing there, watching them work together.

“Sir?” Ward asked tentatively, not sure where his C.O. was going with this.

“So what you’re both saying is, that you’ve exhausted all possible sources of information to find a lead on O’Leary, right?”

Both Ward and Agent Haze nodded as they looked at Coulson, curious to find out if he had come up with a different plan.

“Right. But I’ve been thinking, and it suddenly hit me that we’ve all been ignoring the biggest lead on him that has been staring us in the face from the get go.” Judging by the expression on his face, Coulson seemed to expect at least Ward to follow his train of thought, but the younger agent still looked at him in confusion. After letting out an annoyed huff, Coulson finally continued.

“Skye!”

Ward’s brow furrowed as he kept staring at his superior in silence, not understanding the connection he saw between the missing scientist and their wayward hacker.

“Sir, I don’t see how—”, but Coulson interrupted him immediately, clearly having thought about this argument for some time.

“The way I see it, there are two possible explanations for Skye’s disappearance. The first is, that she might have actually left voluntarily, but given the timing and the difficulty of removing the tracking bracelet without us noticing, it is highly possible that she may in some way be involved with the people also responsible for Dr. O’Leary’s disappearance.” Coulson interrupted himself for a brief moment and his expression darkened visibly before he continued, as he obviously didn’t like what he was about to say next.

“But of course there is also still the possibility that Skye has been taken against her will, in which case finding her should have been our priority from the start. But again, seeing how close Skye’s disappearance coincides with Dr. O’Leary’s, these two incidents just have to be connected and finding one of them will most likely lead to finding the other.”

Ward looked at his team leader skeptically, not really sure what to think of his reasoning. But, as he had to admit grudgingly, it wasn’t as if he had a better plan at the moment. Also, as much as he refused to acknowledge it, a part of him wanted nothing more than to look for Skye, to make sure that she was safe wherever she was now. Because once he had proof of her being alright, he could focus again on been furious with her, or at least that was what he kept telling himself.

“Okay,” he relented, “but where do we even start looking for her? It’s not like we have a ton of information on her whereabouts, either.” The sly smile on Coulson’s face told him how wrong he was, before his superior had even said a word.

“Oh, but a lot more than you might think.” At this point Coulson turned towards the back of the plane, where Fitzsimmons were just approaching from the direction of their lab. The two scientists were arguing quietly but intensely with each other, completely oblivious to the attention they were now receiving. Only when they had almost reached the command centre, did they become aware of the three pairs of eyes watching them and fell silent immediately.

“What?” Fitz asked in sudden self-consciousness, looking like a deer caught in the headlights.

“What’s going on?” Simmons specified the question, her gaze constantly shifting between the three agents in front of her.

Earlier she and Fitz had already been introduced to Agent Haze, and while the female scientist didn’t particularly like the idea of having a different computer expert on board than Skye, she didn’t question Coulson’s decision to request some backup from HQ. She was still convinced that Skye had to be in some kind of trouble and so she was glad for any help they could get in finding her.

Fitz had greeted their newest addition to the team friendly enough, and even though he had later, in the privacy of their lab, made some rather condescending remarks about Academy of Communications graduates, she was fairly sure that he appreciated the assistance as well.

Simmons knew that he adored Skye – although she wasn’t always sure to what degree exactly – and finding her was his foremost priority, no matter what their orders were. Which, incidentally, was exactly why they had been arguing before.

As Coulson finally answered the scientists, his request startled both Fitz and Simmons, but for different reasons.

“We need to know if you found anything analysing Skye’s laptop.”

Jemma blinked a few times before her gaze shifted to her lab partner, who was looking back at her with a smug grin plastered on his face.

Thrown off balance by both Coulson’s words and Fitz’s triumphant reaction, the bio-chemist stumbled over her words as she tried to make sense of this new development.

“But… but you said yesterday that we were supposed to stay focused on searching for Dr. O’Leary, and not get distracted by trying to find Skye. You said her laptop wasn’t a priority.”

“That’s true,” Coulson agreed, before he continued with a smile, “but I knew Agent Fitz would run the analysis anyway. In fact, I pretty much counted on it.”

Still slightly dumbfounded, Jemma looked back over to Fitz, who grinned brightly at her and now clearly mouthed the words “ _told” – “you” – “so”_ in her direction.

After they had both officially retired for the night yesterday evening, he had spent hours working on Skye’s laptop, running every diagnostic he knew and scanning every byte of data for an explanation as to what had happened to their favourite hacker. While Simmons wanted to find out the truth just as much as her partner, she had actually been nagging him about him defying Coulson’s orders and not staying focused on their current assignment. But, as she now realised, Coulson had never actually expected them to abandon the search for their missing team member and Jemma instantly felt bad for ever assuming he had.

“So, what did you find?” Agent Coulson asked more directly this time, causing Fitzsimmons to immediately abandon their banter and become completely focused.

“I have it downstairs in the lab, just give me a second, I’ll go and get it. You’ll really want to see this.” Fitz hurried back to retrieve the laptop as quickly as he could, eager to show his findings to the team.

By the time Leo had set up the laptop in the command centre, Agent May had joined the group and they all paid close attention as the scientist began his explanations.

“From what Agent Ward told us yesterday, we know that there were interferences with the communication during his and Skye’s mission – presumably coming from the TV tower – and that she was trying to find a way around it, but instead the problem kept getting worse. Now the first thing Skye would have done in that situation would have been to run a full-spectrum signal analysis to figure out which frequency range was causing the trouble, but when I first started examining the laptop, there was no sign of such an analysis or even anything indicating signal interferences at all. Now, I know that some of you,” he pointedly glanced in Ward’s direction at this, “might argue that Skye had simply been lying about these problems in the first place, but I wasn’t ready to believe that, so I started digging deeper. And I found something.”

Fitz moved over to push a few buttons on the laptop, at which point a complicated looking technical diagram was displayed on the main monitor of the command centre, clearly meant to illustrate his point to the group. Going by the looks on their faces, however, it was rather apparent that aside from Agent Haze, the others only had a vague idea at best of what exactly they were looking at. Despite of that, Agent Fitz kept facing his team eagerly, clearly expecting them to see what was so blatantly obvious to him.

“The data has been erased,” Haze finally elaborated, earning her an appreciative nod from the engineer.

“Exactly,” he agreed enthusiastically. “But, using a data recovery algorithm I wrote in the academy, I was able to restore most of the lost information, showing us what Skye had been working on.”

Ward shrugged, so far rather unimpressed by Fitz’s findings.

“So what? Now we know that Skye tried to delete any trace she had left behind before she vanished. What exactly does that prove?”

“Well,” Leo started to explain, drawing out the word, while his low regard for the field agent in any intellectual matters was written all over his features, “first of all, I wasn’t even at the really interesting part yet, but also, I don’t believe that it was Skye who erased this data.” Going by the disparaging look on his face, Fitz seemed to be contemplating whether operative agents were generally this slow on the uptake, or if that was just Ward’s personal charm.

The specialist didn’t let that bother him, though, as he went on with his questions.

“And why is that?” he wanted to know, as he wasn’t following Fitz’s reasoning. It wasn’t the engineer who answered him, however, but Agent Haze.

“Because Skye is better than that.” Leo nodded in agreement as the computer expert continued her explanation to Ward and the others. “If Skye had done this, if she had wanted this data to be gone, it would be gone. No, this was somebody else, somebody who doesn’t know as well as Skye does what means and resources SHIELD has at its disposal.”

For a moment, the implication that someone other than Skye had been using her laptop after her disappearance settled in on the group, but Ward couldn’t shake that nagging feeling at the back of his mind, alerting him to something Agent Haze had just said. Something that wasn’t off, but was in fact much more precise than it should have been.

“What exactly do you mean when you say ‘Skye is better than that’? I gather that you probably read her file and at least some of her mission reports, but still, that was a pretty definite statement for someone who has never met her before.”

Clearly caught off guard by the question, Agent Haze glanced over at Coulson, who simply replied with a small shrug and a nod.

“Well, the reason why I am so certain about Skye’s abilities,” the agent began to explain herself, her expression composed and not giving away her thoughts on any of this, “is that I have spent the last few months supervising and analysing all her interactions with computers and other electronic devices.”

While the agents Coulson and May didn’t look surprised by this revelation, Fitzsimmons seemed to need a moment to connect the dots and figure out what exactly Agent Haze had meant by this. Not so Agent Ward, on whose face realisation dawned instantly.

“You’re that someone somewhere,” he announced in bewilderment, earning himself a confused look from Haze and the others. As he became aware of this, he hurried to explain the expression.

“It’s just something Skye said before she disappeared. She said that there was someone somewhere monitoring her every move, making sure she wasn’t doing anything illegal. Or fun,” he added with a half smile, but became completely serious again as he continued to watch Agent Haze closely. “And you’re that person. You’re the one, who has been spying on her for months now. Maybe you’re even the reason why she left.”

**To be continued…**


	11. Track Records

In this confined space, echoing from the bare stone walls, the shot was deafening.

Skye had seen people getting shot several times by now, but a part of her still expected it to be like in one of those terrible Hollywood movies with the victim being blown halfway across the room by the blast, blood spurting from the wound like a fountain.

Reality was different, though.

Despite the pain he had to be in, Jack’s eyes remained focused on Skye’s for several seconds, as if he couldn’t quite believe what had just happened, either, until his gaze finally shifted down to the hole in his shirt that was quickly turning red. He gasped as his hand moved up tentatively to the wound, but then his legs suddenly gave out underneath him and he crumbled to the ground, hitting the floor hard.

Reflexively, Skye retreated along the wall away from him until she found herself with her back in the corner, shaking all over. She kept staring at the motionless body in front of her, and only now did she slowly begin to realise what had happened.

She had killed Jack. Shot him without even really meaning to.

A desperate and terrified sound escaped Skye’s throat as the reality of the situation sank in and she began to panic. She barely realised as the gun fell from her trembling fingers and landed on the floor with a metallic clank, as Skye was already moving, hurrying for the door.

Locked.

Or at least that was her first thought when it didn’t budge immediately. Thankfully, though, the door was only stuck and when she gave it another hard pull, it finally sprung wide open and the young woman ran outside without hesitating or looking back.

Once she had left her cell behind her, she was faced with the choice between going left or right, but as the corridor looked equally uninviting in both directions, and she had no idea where to go anyway, the hacker blindly chose right and kept running.

Skye was sure that Jack hadn’t been acting alone and so there would surely be others nearby, who might have heard the gunshot and could come looking for him any second now.

She had to get to safety. She had to get out of here. If only she knew where _here_ even was.

Hurrying down the long and narrow corridor in front of her, Skye noticed the tubes running along the wall and ceiling and the safety instructions everywhere, supporting her earlier theory, that she was in fact in the basement level of some kind of factory or industrial plant. It had to have been abandoned for quite a while, though, going by the rundown state of things.

There was dust and dirt everywhere, several of the lights along the ceiling seemed to be broken and the entire place was filled with such a damp cold that she doubted anyone was still working here.

Except for the men who had kidnapped her of course.

Skye felt lucky that so far, she hadn’t encountered anyone on her escape. She had passed a few closed doors along the way, but hadn’t dared opening any of them for fear of running into one of Jack’s accomplices.

She didn’t know if none of them had heard the gunshot after all, or if simply nobody had thought it alarming enough to investigate, but Skye could only assume that they hadn’t found Jack’s body yet. Otherwise, she figured, there would be men coming after her by now. She could only hope that she would find a way out of here, before her escape was noticed.

So far, the corridor had gone straight ahead, leaving her with no choice but to follow it, but now Skye finally noticed a junction about 20 meters ahead of her. As she could also hear voices in the distance, she slowed down immediately, her heart hammering in her chest at the mere thought of being discovered.

As slowly and noiselessly as she could, the young woman inched forward until she reached the corner in the hallway. In three directions, including the one she had come from, she could see nothing but empty corridor ahead. In the remaining one, however, the corridor opened up into a large hall with a massive machine in the centre that was blocking most of her view. The voices she had already heard from the corridor belonged to two armed men in black combat gear, who seemed to be standing guard in the room. Luckily for Skye, they weren’t facing in her direction at the moment and hadn’t noticed her, but it would be impossible to proceed any further without being spotted.

Skye was already about to go back and find another way, when she suddenly noticed something else that caught her attention.

There, at the other end of the hall was a door with a sign for the staircase right next to it. Given the size of the complex, there had to be more stairs elsewhere, but chances were that those were guarded as well. And, of course, Skye would have to find them first, without running into one of her captors on the way.

No, if she wanted to get upstairs and find a way to the outside, this was probably her best bet at doing so. If only she could find a way to get past these men undetected.

Skye cursed inwardly as she thought back to the gun she had dropped earlier in her cell, wishing she would have kept it instead of leaving it behind. It certainly could have come in handy right now. Although, if she was being honest with herself, she was still so shocked and rattled from shooting Jack, that she wasn’t sure she would have been able to aim a gun steadily at anyone, let alone pull the trigger again.

She wasn’t quite ready to deal with what had happened, though, and so the young woman pushed the memory aside, forcing herself to focus on the current situation instead. Her mind already racing to come up with an idea, Skye pulled back into the corridor and went in one of the other directions instead, looking for anything that might help her get past the guards, like something that could work as a distraction.

After not even a minute, she found herself in front of another door, but this one had a small window at the top and she could clearly see that the room behind it was dark and empty.

Skye bit down on her bottom lip anxiously as she laid her hand on the door handle, sending out a small prayer in her mind that the door wasn’t locked. Much to her relief, it wasn’t.

The young hacker quickly moved inside and found herself in some kind of makeshift break room. There were two tables positioned in the centre of the room, with an old desk lamp standing on one of them, and a couple of shelves at the wall, although they were mostly empty except for some mismatched couple of dishes. There was also a fridge standing in the corner, which was actually running, judging by the low humming sound emanating from it.

Skye left the lights off as she closed the door, to avoid drawing any attention to herself, in case somebody should pass by, but the small window afforded enough light from the corridor to allow her to move around without trouble.

Despite her still terrified state, the adrenaline rush she had felt earlier was slowly wearing off, and Skye realised once more how extremely thirsty and hungry she still was. What Jack had brought her earlier couldn’t even have been considered a meal, and so she was desperately hoping that her kidnappers were actually storing some of their supplies in here.

After a last nervous glance towards the door, Skye opened the fridge, hoping to find something to drink and maybe even some food in there. Once she got a look at the contents, however, that were illuminated by the small light inside, which seemed unnaturally bright in the darkness of the room, all thoughts of nourishment were immediately forgotten.

There, front and centre in the fridge, standing between beer cans and soda bottles was a big jar, filled with a clear liquid. And in that liquid was a hand.

A real, actual human hand.

Skye wanted to scream, but found that she couldn’t, as her voice caught in her throat.

She had seen horrible things in the past, but finding this here, now, just made her wonder once more in what kind of hell she had found herself.

Her mouth still slightly agape, Skye kept staring at the hand – _the hand in the fridge_ – unable to tear her eyes away from it, until a tiny detail suddenly caught her attention and the scream burst from her throat after all.

For a moment, she didn’t care who heard it, didn’t care about her own safety, because she suddenly knew whose hand this was.

Her mind raced back almost two years, to her time in LA and to the small apartment Miles Lydon had lived in at the time.

\- - It was a Saturday morning and the sun had already been up for hours, but Skye and her boyfriend were still in bed, just enjoying their time together. They were snuggled up against each other, with Miles lying behind her, his arms wrapped protectively around her. The young woman had her fingers entwined with his and was smiling happily, but as she ran the tip of her thumb across his skin, her brow furrowed ever so slightly as she noticed a small scar on Miles’ ring finger.

“Where did you get that from?” she asked sleepily, her head turning in his direction.

“Bike accident when I was a kid,” the hacker answered, gently intensifying his hold on the young woman. “But I swear it wasn’t my fault. That wall really came at me out of nowhere.” He pressed a soft kiss on her neck as Skye started laughing, but didn’t object to his advances.

“You know,” she managed to get out in between bursts of laughter, “I should probably rethink letting you drive my van, now that I know your track record.”

“Oh, really?” He pulled her around, so that she was now looking up at him, with him lying on top of her.

“Yeah, really,” she replied, still a big grin on her face.

“Well, maybe I should rethink letting you sleep here, then.”

“If that’s what you want.” Skye’s voice was completely innocent, but the look in her eyes was both challenging and inviting, telling Miles everything he needed to know.

“Nah,” he finally answered and leaned down to kiss the young woman passionately. Their hands found each other again and Skye’s fingers traced once more over the small scar, the same one she was staring at right now, here on the hand in the fridge…

**To be continued…**


	12. Here To Help

...

“And you’re that person. You’re the one who has been spying on her for months now. Maybe you’re even the reason why she left.”

...

A tense silence filled the room after these words as Ward kept staring at Agent Haze, his anger only barely concealed.

The thought of someone monitoring his rookie hadn’t bothered him before, given the fact that this punishment had actually been extremely mild, considering her actions, but standing face to face with the agent in question now was a different matter entirely. He knew that Haze was doing an important job, but how was he supposed to work with, let alone trust someone who had been investigating a member of his team?

It seemed as if Coulson was guessing his thoughts, as he intervened before Haze could reply anything, clearly trying to keep the situation from escalating.

“I specifically asked for Agent Haze to assist us, _because_ I knew that she had been in charge of monitoring Skye’s activities after what happened with Miles Lydon. Not only can she give us the help we need to track down Dr. O’Leary, as she has the skill set you yourself requested, I also couldn’t think of anyone else more suited to help us look for Skye.

I understand why you might be angry, Ward; that’s why I decided to keep this information from you and the team, so you would remain focused on finding O’Leary. But even _if_ Skye did in fact choose to leave because of the surveillance put on her, that is hardly Agent Haze’s fault. She wasn’t the one who put the tracker on Skye. That was me.”

Before Coulson could say anything else, Haze spoke up now as well, facing Ward directly.

“I know me looking into one of your team like this isn’t exactly the best foundation for us to work together, but believe me, I’m here to help. As Agent Coulson said, he asked specifically for me to assist you with your mission, and I wouldn’t have come here if I hadn’t thought that I could be useful.

Obviously I don’t know Skye the way all of you do, but I know her work. If she has left any digital trace behind that can lead us to her whereabouts, if she has so much as touched a keyboard, tracker or not, I will find her, I promise.

Skye might have severely violated SHIELD protocol before and I think putting her under surveillance was the right choice, but I also believe that she is a good person. I want to help find her, please let me.”

Ward remained quiet for a long moment as he kept looking at Agent Haze, trying to decide whether she was being honest with her assertions. In the end, however, he figured that if Coulson had asked her to come on board and help find Skye, he would simply have to have faith that his C.O. knew what he was doing. So he nodded briefly, accepting her offer.

“Alright, I guess we do need all the help we can get.”

Instead of focusing on his anger over Agent Haze’s possible influence on Skye’s disappearance, Ward diverted his attention back to Fitz, whose report about the data he had found on the laptop the specialist had interrupted earlier.

“So what else did you find?”

Startled by the sudden shift of the conversation, the scientist looked somewhat dumbfounded for a moment until Ward rephrased his question.

“You said that the data on the laptop having been erased wasn’t the interesting part. So what was?”

“Right,” Fitz nodded and hurried over to the computer table where he pushed a few buttons until another image appeared on the screen. Ward knew just enough about science to know that it was showing some kind of signal wavelength, but other than that it wasn’t telling him anything. Luckily, Fitz was already beginning to explain his findings.

“As I said earlier, Skye had been running a full-spectrum signal analysis before she vanished and that way her laptop also recorded the signal that was used to disable her tracking bracelet. This is it,” he quickly pointed at the display, before facing the group again, “and if I had to make a guess, I’d say that this was the reason why the data on the laptop was erased in the first place. To hide how it was done.”

“And how exactly was it done?” Coulson asked calmly, his expression not betraying what was going through his mind right now. “How could anyone have the key code to deactivating a SHIELD devise? This is highly classified information we’re talking about after all, there aren’t many people who would have had access to the right codes.”

Apparently surprised by his C.O.’s line of thought, Fitz shook his head vehemently.

“No, don’t worry; we’re not dealing with compromised intel here. Whoever it was who managed to deactivate the bracelet wasn’t using a key, but more of a crowbar.”

“A _crowbar_?” Ward asked, an eyebrow raised in confusion.

“Yes, the signal wasn’t calibrated to Skye’s specific bracelet, but to the device in general.”

“So the same signal could have been used to deactivate other SHIELD tags as well?” Coulson asked carefully, shooting a glance in May’s direction as he waited for an answer. Fitz nodded quickly in reply, his excitement over his discovery showing.

“Yes, of course. I’d even say that that is exactly the point of the device used to generate the signal. So you could disable other tags without the signal needing to be calibrated for each one individually. But, assuming that whoever designed this didn’t have access to our schematics, they would have needed at least one of our tags first to make the signal functional. It’s still quite an impressive piece of engineering to make it work this well against our technology, but without an original model to work with, to modify the signal for, their device would have been useless.”

This time it wasn’t just a glance that Coulson and May exchanged. The female agent was standing rigidly, her eyes fixed on her superior while her naturally calm exterior just barely betrayed her astonishment. Coulson’s expression darkened noticeably as more pieces of the puzzle they were facing started to fall into place.

The exchange wasn’t lost on any of the others, but Ward was the first to voice the question they all had in mind.

“What? What do you know?”

Coulson sighed and leaned with his hands on the table in front of him before answering, feeling as if they were still groping in the dark, despite the progress they were finally making in regard to Skye’s disappearance.

“As soon as we had gotten back to the Bus yesterday, I had Agent May look into Skye’s known associates at the Rising Tide, including Miles Lydon, of course, to see if anyone of them might have been involved in her disappearance. And she found out that Mr. Lydon has in fact been missing as well, for about a week now, without SHIELD being able to find a solid lead on his whereabouts.”

Agent Coulson paused briefly as he watched the reactions of his team to this new information. While both the agents May and Haze had known about this already, their two resident scientists were obviously startled, not exactly knowing how to interpret this turn of events. He could see in them exactly the same uncertainty he had felt, when he had first learned about the hacker’s involvement, wondering if her former lover could have caused Skye to betray them again. While Fitz and Simmons were both clearly still undecided, however, when Coulson looked at Ward and saw the shock and anger so evident in his expression, he knew that that was exactly the conclusion the younger agent had come to.

As he didn’t want this to turn into an argument, Coulson quickly continued his explanation, hoping that this new information wouldn’t disrupt the progress his team had made recently.

“We weren’t involved in the investigation due to our history with him, but while that decision was understandable at the time, I guess that at this point it is safe to assume that Miles Lydon’s and Skye’s disappearance are directly connected with each other.”

After having been silent for the entire meeting so far, Agent May was the first who spoke up now, addressing Fitz.

“There have been no reports of other people tagged by SHIELD having gone missing, so it seems logical that Lydon’s tracker would have been this ‘original model’, as you called it, but even if whoever is behind this got a hold of him and his tag, wouldn’t they still have needed time to get their device to work?”

“Absolutely, yes. But you said he’s been gone for a week?” Fitz asked, looking at Coulson this time, who nodded in reply. “Then that was probably about the time they needed to perfect their signal. We’re still talking about SHIELD technology here, after all. That’s nothing you just crack in a day.” Completely ignoring the professional pride clearly colouring the scientist’s words, May continued with the point she was trying to make.

“Alright, but Lydon’s tag went dark instantly and not in some laboratory, but not far from where he lived. So how did it get disabled that easily?”

“Oh, it probably didn’t.” May raised an eyebrow questioningly, prompting the young scientist to continue in a hurry. “They would simply have needed to get the bracelet into a properly shielded environment, could have even been a car at first, to keep it from transmitting. I imagine it would have been a little annoying to work around the person wearing the tag all the time, but that’s nothing that would have prevented the success of the project.”

“I guess it depends on Lydon’s level of involvement and his value to these people if they might have even found a way around that problem.”

The puzzled look on Fitz’s face betrayed his confusion as he tried to figure out what May had meant by this.

It was Simmons, who put the pieces together first.

“Oh, you don’t mean... they killed him?” she asked, her face taking on an appalled look at the idea. In stark contrast to her, Agent May didn’t seem fazed at all by what they were discussing and she replied calmly.

“Maybe, but not necessarily. If all they needed was better access to the bracelet, there wouldn’t have been any real need to actually kill him. Though, of course, he still could have died from the blood loss.”

Fitz looked about to be sick as he finally understood what May and Simmons had been implying.

“You mean they might have actually... chopped off his hand?” He made a cutting motion above his wrist, mimicking the procedure, as he looked at Agent May for confirmation. Proving once more to be the voice of reason on the team, Coulson now interrupted the exchange.

“At this point, nothing of this is anything but speculation. As far as we know, Miles Lydon could just as well be a willing participant in all of this, in which case I highly doubt that his partners would be so quick to mutilate him. So let us not jump to conclusions before we have all of the facts.”

At this point Ward entered the conversation again, having overcome his initial anger and now being completely focused on their mission once more.

“You said that there was no solid lead on Lydon, but wasn’t there anything we could look into? Even with all the resources we’ve already put into this, we’ve been hitting nothing but dead ends so far searching for Dr. O’Leary and if everything we have on Skye is this signal, then I don’t see us getting very far looking for her, either.” He broke off for a second and sighed, his expression slightly pained as he continued.

“I’ve been checking all the surveillance tapes around the hotel myself; she isn’t on any of them. So either she avoided the cameras very carefully, or... someone else made very sure to keep her out of sight.”

This was the first time that Ward had acknowledged so much as the possibility of Skye having been taken against her will, but now that they had proof of at least one other person being involved, the one who had erased the data from the laptop – Miles Lydon perhaps – he was finally willing to at least consider it. Even if it still seemed just as plausible to him, if not even more so, that Skye had been directly involved in her disappearance, had probably been working with Miles again to pull it off, he had decided that he wanted to look for her after all.

He wanted her to tell him to his face what was so important that she had to just get up and leave in the middle of an operation, a part of him clinging to the hope that she wouldn’t have done that without a very good reason.

“Well,” Coulson began, his expression thoughtful as he started listing everything they had to go on, looking for Miles Lydon, “we have surveillance tapes from the area where he lived, though none of them show his actual disappearance, and the unverified account of a single witness, that talks of a paramilitary group looking for Lydon. You can have access to all the materials, of course, but another SHIELD team has already been over all of it, and they came up with nothing.”

While Colson look clearly frustrated that this new connection they had found might turn out to be another dead end, Ward tried to think of an angle the other team hadn’t taken into consideration. Something connecting all their cases with each other.

It was Agent Haze, however, who came up with an idea first.

“You said that Lydon lived close to where he disappeared?” She waited for Colson to nod in confirmation, before continuing. “Then there might be a good chance that whoever kidnapped him or helped him get away was around before, either talking to Lydon or studying his schedule if they took him by force. Either way, if these people are professionals, they might not have been noticed during a first check of the tapes, but if I cross-reference them with the records we have from the area where Skye and O’Leary disappeared, I might find something.

Now that we know that all these incidents are connected, it would only make sense that the same people would have been at both places. The analysis will take a while, but if anyone has been at both locations we’ll know.”

“Do it,” Coulson ordered, a determined look on his face.

Ward could only assume that his C.O. was even more relieved than him that it seemed to have been a good idea after all to get Agent Haze’s help on the case. So far at least.

 

* * *

 

After Coulson had given the order, Agent Haze had immediately started to work on that data analysis, while Fitz had taken Skye’s laptop back down to the lab to look into it further, Jemma accompanying him to assist him. The two scientists simply worked together so well, that it didn’t even matter that this had nothing to do with biochemistry at all. Simmons just knew her partner in and out, his working routine, and was able to help him despite her lack of knowledge in his field. A testament to their extremely tight relationship, that actually worked in both directions.

So while the computer expert and the two scientists were busy working, and Coulson and May had buried themselves in files and reports about all the three disappearances they were now investigating, Agent Ward had realised that he needed to take a break, even if only for a few minutes.

Except from the few hours of restless sleep last night, he hadn’t allowed himself so much as a moment to relax ever since he had gotten back from the mission yesterday, and he was starting to feel the effects. All he needed now was a few minutes for himself to clear his head and so he found himself at the only place he was always able to do so.

The makeshift gym in the cargo hold where he was now hitting the punching bag vigorously, letting himself vent all of his anger and frustration that had built up in him ever since his rookie had gone missing. Ever since he had come back into that hotel room...

\- - Ward was sitting outside a small corner café, his back to the wall so he had a good look at his surroundings. There was a cup of coffee standing on the table in front of him that was slowly getting cold as it was being completely ignored, the agent too focused on his mission to drink anything. A mission that was quickly going south, as his target was already about 15 minutes late and he still had no communication with his backup.

“What’s taking you so long, Skye,” he muttered under his breath, his fingers ghosting over his earpiece while the other hand was tapping on the table nervously.

He was irritated. Irritated by O’Leary never showing up, irritated by the broken connection to Skye and most of all irritated by being this worried about her. He kept telling himself that he had absolutely no reason to be concerned; Skye herself had warned him about the signal interferences after all, and even though that problem was obviously worse than expected, it was still nothing that warranted this level of concern on his part.

Usually.

Yet today he found himself tapping the table and checking his watch every two minutes, caring more about re-establishing radio contact with his rookie than about their only lead on Centipede showing up. He had already tried calling her, but his cell wasn’t getting any signal, which was doing nothing to alleviate his worries.

A burst of laughter coming from a table to his left suddenly startled him and Ward looked over to the three young women sitting there as one of them was tossing her chocolate brown hair back laughing, the way Skye sometimes did when she and Jemma where hanging out together. She barely ever did this when talking to him, as he knew that he simply wasn’t very entertaining company, but he could never stop himself from smiling at the sight, the hacker’s good-natured personality perhaps rubbing off on him, even if only a little.

“Damn it.” Ward clenched his fist for a second and closed his eyes as he made up his mind, before reaching into his pocket for some cash to pay his untouched coffee. He left the money on the table and quickly moved past the other guests outside the café, before hurrying back in the direction of the hotel where he had left Skye earlier. He cursed inwardly over having their base so far away, but the meeting point that Dr. O’Leary had set was in the middle of a pedestrian area, where a SHIELD van would have been a little too obvious and the hotel had been the closest place that had allowed them to set up their equipment.

In addition to that, Skye wasn’t someone who really needed eyes on the scene anyway, at least not directly. Ward knew that she was more useful plucked into a satellite feed and surveillance cameras, than an entire observation team was on the scene.

Without really noticing, his steps sped up as he got closer to his destination and as he was inside the hotel, he practically ran up the stairs, startling a maid who was just making her way in the opposite direction.

Skye was fine, Ward kept telling himself. Technical difficulties, that was all there was to this, but despite this insistence he knew he would only be able to calm down again once he saw with his own eyes that his rookie was alright.

He slid the key card to the room through the electronic lock and pushed the door open, expecting a surprised and probably annoyed Skye to greet him, but to Ward’s horror only the silence of an empty room answered him as he called the hacker’s name.

“Skye!” he shouted once more, then went over to check the bathroom – unsuccessfully – until he came to stand in the middle of the hotel room, looking around, his panic level rising. Ward felt as if the walls around him were closing in on him as his worst nightmare seemed to come true right in front of him. Skye was gone, maybe dead, and he was responsible. He was her S.O., he was supposed to look out for her, and anything that happened to her on a mission was directly his responsibility, and his alone.

At this point Ward’s eyes fell on the table and he suddenly went cold inside. Skye’s tracking bracelet was lying there innocently next to the laptop and he now finally noticed that there was a message typed on the screen.

 _So long_.

As the meaning of all of this began to sink in, it was taking all the self-control Ward had not to throw the laptop across the room. Instead he growled in anger as he slammed his fist on the table, flinching as pain erupted in his hand.

It wasn’t broken, that much he knew from experience, but this had probably still not been one of his smartest moves, Ward conceited as he cradled his hurting hand in the other.

He clenched his teeth as he walked over to the phone on the nightstand to contact the rest of the team, not really sure how to explain this mess to Coulson.

**To be continued...**


	13. Here Goes Nothing

Skye slapped her hands in front of her mouth to stop herself from screaming and backed away from the fridge. Even as its door fell shut after she had let go of it, she didn’t stop until she felt herself hitting one of the tables in the centre of the room. Then she just stood there for a moment, trembling all over again, her mind reeling with the possible implications of her discovery.

She had no doubt that it was really Miles’ hand she had just found, but did him losing a hand also mean that he was dead? And if so, had he already been dead when the hand had been severed from his arm, or had he still been alive, screaming in agony as a piece of him was removed?

As this image forced itself into Skye’s mind, her body suddenly started heaving and she quickly glanced around the poorly lit room, discovering a trash can in the corner next to the fridge. She practically lunged at it, falling to her knees as the meagre contents of her stomach forced their way back up violently.

As Skye had barely had anything to eat or drink lately, bile quickly mixed in with the vomit, leaving a sharp taste in her mouth while she kept heaving for a few minutes until her stomach finally settled down again. The young woman breathed heavily as she let herself sink back down to the floor, leaning against the fridge behind her. Silent sobs racked her body as she tried to make as little noise as possible.

She was exhausted and needed to rest, if only for a minute, and the bulky frame of the fridge actually provided some cover from being spotted from the door. If she pulled her legs a little closer, she was almost completely hidden from view from the outside, so given her current situation, this was probably as safe a hiding place as she could find right now.

Skye pulled her knees up to her chest as she struggled to get a hold of herself, trying to figure out what her next move was going to be.

The last time she had seen him, Miles had not only betrayed her trust, but also his own righteous ideals by selling information to Centipede, whether he had known about their evil agenda at the time or not. He had trampled on everything they had both believed in, but while Skye was certain that she had absolutely no romantic feelings left for him, she also couldn’t ignore the fact that she had loved the hacker once. And she was sure that he had returned the feeling at the time.

So how could she leave him behind now? How could she abandon him in this hell hole while she was on her way to escape?

The question repeated itself in her mind over and over again, but tears started to rush into Skye’s eyes as she also remembered the reality of her situation.

She didn’t know where Miles was, didn’t know if he was still alive. Even if he was, and she actually found him by some miracle, how was she going to free him? She was unarmed, weakened by her imprisonment and the lack of food and even in the best case scenario, Miles was at least heavily injured.

She hadn’t so much as found a way to get out of here herself yet, and so, no matter how much it pained her, Skye had to accept that she was in no position to go searching for her ex-boyfriend right now. Taking in a shaky breath, the young woman finally admitted to herself that the only option she had to help Miles was to get out of here and find her team, so they could rescue him instead.

Ward or May could have done it, of course, but she was no specialist. She wasn’t even a trained agent yet, just a rookie, who had found herself in a situation way over her head.

But she wasn’t going to give up, either, and so she stifled her sobs and tried to concentrate again on coming up with a plan to get past those guards and to the staircase she had seen earlier.

Her first idea had been to create some kind of distraction, but if even a gun being fired hadn’t resulted in a search party for her, she wasn’t sure what else she could do to grab these men’s attention without getting caught in the process.

If only she could find a way to get past them without being seen.

The young woman let that thought run through her mind a few times, until a flash of inspiration suddenly hit her and she sat up a little straighter.

If her earlier stand-off with Jack had shown her one thing, it was that despite the horrors she now associated with it, darkness could also be her friend. If the guards in front of the stairs weren’t able to see anything, they also wouldn’t be able to see her sneaking past them and out of this hell hole. She just needed to turn off the lights long enough to make her escape, but if she could find a way to fry the circuits in this place, that didn’t seem like such an impossible task.

Filled with new resolve, Skye wiped the tears from her eyes and pushed herself off the ground, determined to get out of here at last. It wasn’t just her life on the line anymore; she had to get Miles out of here, too now, so she couldn’t afford to be afraid any longer. She had to do something, and fast.

After quickly risking a glance out of the small window in the door to make sure that no one was outside, Skye started to get to work.

The first thing she did was to check the desk lamp, to see if it worked. She quickly pressed the switch on the cord, grinning in satisfaction as the light bulb sprang to life. She immediately turned it off again and pulled the plug from the socket, then busted open the foot of the lamp, using a knife she had found between some of the dishes on the wall shelf.

The rest of the lamp was useless to her, she only needed the cord and the exposed wires, which she placed back on the table before moving to retrieve the other thing she needed to blow out a fuse or two in this run-down place.

Water.

Trying her best to keep her eyes as far away from the jar as possible, Skye opened the fridge once more and grabbed a large bottle of water with trembling fingers. Before she moved on with her plan, she spent a few moments to take several slow sips from the bottle, careful not to make herself sick despite her thirst.

After she felt somewhat refreshed, the young hacker plugged the cord back into the socket in the wall and dropped the other end into the water.

“Ok, here goes nothing.”

The knife in one hand, the cord in the other, Skye took a deep breath to calm herself, before pressing the switch.

There was a loud snap and a few sparks coming from the water bottle and in the same instant the lights in the corridor outside went dark. Skye kept her lips clenched tightly, but did a little bounce as she watched her plan succeed.

She wasn’t about to forget the seriousness of her situation, but that didn’t mean that she couldn’t feel happy about something working out for her for once. Despite that, however, she also knew that this had been the easy part. Now came the part where she actually had to sneak past a bunch of armed men, who, if they found her, were either going to kill her or lock her back up in some hole, both of which were equally terrifying options.

Concentrating to keep her breathing even, Skye made her way to the door, having memorised the way beforehand. The real challenge began when she stepped out into the corridor and headed back towards the hall leading to the staircase. Not that it was difficult moving along the narrow corridor, her hand gliding along the wall, but Skye had to muster up all her self-control to keep calm, to keep breathing evenly and not to panic in the pitch black around her.

Just as Skye was beginning to worry that she might not have thought her plan all the way through – as in, how was she going to make her way all the way through the hall with the guards without being able to see anything herself – she suddenly heard a soft whirring sound and several meters ahead of her a red light bulb lit up, tinting the entire corridor in an eerie glow. Going by the slow reaction time, Skye could only assume that it must have been years since the generator, which was now apparently powering the emergency light, had sprung to life.

She was approaching the junction from before now, finding her way much more quickly in the dim light. The room with the large machine was to her right, the corridor she had originally come from directly in front of her. Skye was slowly inching forward, until she came to an abrupt halt, feeling as if her heart had stopped as well. There was someone coming her way from inside the room and according to the footsteps she could hear, that someone was only seconds away.

She pressed herself flat against the wall to her right, seeing as she had no other way to hide, holding onto the knife in her hand for dear life. She didn’t want to use it, but she would if she had to.

The seconds went by agonisingly slowly as Skye stood there, holding her breath, adamant not to make a sound. While she was listening carefully for the footsteps coming towards her, she could hear a voice as the guard answered his radio.

“No, I have no idea what’s wrong with the lights again. But this place is a shithole; it’s probably just starting to fall apart. Jack isn’t answering his radio. He must have turned it off again. I’m going to check how far he is with the girl, you get working on the damn lights, alright?”

He stepped out into the corridor now, but turned right instantly, away from Skye. The hacker was still in the same position, eyes wide in fear, as she watched the guard walking away from her without even so much as catching a glimpse of her.

She sent a silent thank you to whatever guardian spirit that had to be looking out for her right now, before making her way on tiptoes into the hall.

The large room was even more poorly lit than the corridor outside, and the machine in the centre was still blocking most of her view, but the young woman could see immediately that the spot where the guards had been standing earlier was deserted now. The hall was completely empty and her way to the stairs was free.

Her footsteps were the only sound as Skye was making her way across the room, seeming unnaturally loud to her in the otherwise complete silence. She kept glancing around, making sure that she was really alone and that none of the guards were coming back yet. As she was finally at the door leading to the stairs, Skye opened it as slowly and silently as she could, but to her immense relieve she soon realised that the staircase was deserted as well.

According to the text on the wall, she was currently on the second sub level of the complex, which meant that there were only two levels of stairs separating her from the ground floor and daylight. And, of course, from her way out of here.

As she was making her way upstairs, Skye noticed once again how weak she actually was at the moment. Malnourished, tortured and restrained for hours if not days, she barely felt like herself anymore and the climb up these few flights of stairs was a lot more exhausting than it was supposed to be.

Right now she was running on nothing but adrenaline and her desperation to get out of here, but once she had made it back to the Bus, back _home_ , she was first going to raid the entire food storage and then curl up in her bed for a week.

Tears suddenly rushed to Skye’s eyes without her being able to stop it. All this time she had tried to push any thoughts of her team aside, the idea that they weren’t going to come for her, because Jack had convinced them that she had betrayed them once more just too painful to bear. Now, however, that didn’t matter anymore. Soon she would be able to tell them the truth herself and one look at her battered and bruised body would be more than enough proof that they had been manipulated all this time.

She couldn’t wait to see the others again; Coulson with that typical smile on his face that sometimes was just that little bit wider when he was looking at her; Fitz and Simmons, who had both become the siblings she had never had, and who were the ones who always made her feel welcome on the team, no matter what; even May, whom she both feared and respected, but whose stern demeanour couldn’t conceal how much she actually cared about everyone on her team, Skye included; and Ward…

Skye didn’t really know what to think about him, what he was to her. S.O., team mate, friend, yes, but also the one person, who made her heart beat faster whenever she thought about him, and whose approval mattered more to her than anyone else’s.

She longed to see him again with all her heart, wanted to tell him and the others how much they all meant to her, but she knew that it was up to her now to make that happen. So she clung to that thought and used it to keep going, to fight off her own weakness and fatigue and to finally make it out of here.

Skye sighed as she reached the ground level after what seemed like forever and approached the door leading out of the staircase; only to find that it was locked.

Her heart dropped as she pulled the handle again repeatedly, but to no avail.

“ _No_! No, no, no, no, no,” she murmured over and over again as the realisation sank in. She rested her forehead against the door, desperately trying to figure out what to do now.

She had made it this far, there was no way that she was going to be stopped by a stupid locked door. Not when she was so close to getting out.

Upon closer examining the door, Skye noticed that luckily it didn’t make a very sturdy impression. She couldn’t just bust the lock, as the door opened in her direction, but perhaps she might be able to force it open anyway.

A crowbar would be perfect right now, or at least some kind of lever. But the only thing Skye had on her was the knife in her hand. She sighed as she came to the conclusion that it would just have to do then, given the lack of any alternative.

She pulled at the door handle as hard as she could, then jammed the tip of the knife into the gap between the door and the frame, wriggling it carefully to apply as much force as she could without breaking the makeshift lever.

Skye kept pulling the handle and simultaneously applying strategic pressure with the knife, until finally the old and rusty lock gave in and the door sprang open. That last push had been too much for the kitchen utensil, however, and it broke not even an inch above the handle, leaving a jagged piece of metal behind that sliced painfully into Skye’s left hand before she even knew what had happened.

She gasped in pain, but did her best to keep her voice down to not be discovered over this. She pressed her good hand over the injury and leaned against the wall, only concentrating on breathing and trying to ignore the throbbing pain radiating from the wound.

After about a minute, Skye had gathered herself enough to look down at the injury, whimpering slightly as she caught sight of the deep cut across the side of her hand. It was bleeding profusely and Skye quickly realised that she had to take care of this immediately, if she didn’t want to end up fainting.

She picked up the remains of the knife from the ground and carefully started to cut several inches off the lower part of her top. She used the fabric as a makeshift bandage and wrapped it around her hand tightly, biting her lip to not cry out from the pain.

As she was done, Skye closed her eyes for a moment and took a few more deep breaths, before finally pushing herself off the wall. She picked up the broken knife again, as it was the only weapon she had, no matter how measly it was, and stood back in front of the door.

The guard downstairs had said that he was going to check on Jack and that meant that his body was soon to be discovered and they would come looking for her. She had to get out of here now, while she still had the chance.

Opening the door slowly, Skye glanced out into the area in front of her. This part of the building seemed to be the office section, because instead of tubes and machines she was greeted by what had clearly once been the front desk of the factory. Now, however, everything was dusty and deserted, the potted plant in the corner nothing more than a collection of dried brown leaves and the once tidy waiting area covered in spider webs and dirt.

But Skye didn’t care. All she cared about was getting out of here.

There were three doors, including the one she had come from, and one open corridor leading from the room. The first door had a large window next to it, but the blinds were almost completely closed, so Skye couldn’t see into the room behind it. The sign on the door told her that it was the director’s office, which would most likely also have a window to the outside that she could climb out of, but as she took a closer look at the blinds, she noticed movement behind them.

Someone was in there, meaning that way was already out of the question.

The second door had no sign or window, so Skye had no idea what might be on the other side of it. Maybe it was the direct way to freedom, but maybe some of the guards were sitting directly behind it. As promising as it was, Skye just couldn’t risk it.

Which left the corridor as her only option and to her immense relief it appeared to be empty.

She made her way down the hallway without incident at first, until she came to a corner. The young woman pressed herself against the wall and slowly inched forward until she could get a glance around it, and suddenly her face lit up.

There, at the end of the corridor was another door with a window next to it, but this time it didn’t lead to another room. No, this time she could clearly see the outside, with daylight streaming into the otherwise dark hallway.

Skye quickly started moving towards it, her steps accelerating more and more until she broke out into a full run, her eyes only focused on the freedom directly in front of her.

That was why she let her guard down and didn’t notice the sudden movement in one of the doorways she passed. She didn’t even see the arm reaching out of it until it wrapped itself around her waist, forcing her to a sudden halt. Before she could do anything against her attacker, a strong hand twisted the remains of the knife from her grasp, leaving her completely defenceless.

Skye let out a startled cry, but as her eyes finally locked on to the man now holding her, it turned into a full-scale scream.

Jack.

Her mind was screaming at her that this couldn’t be, that he couldn’t be alive, but the reality of him holding her, pressing her against him, made it impossible for her to deny the truth. Jack was alive and she was still his prisoner, had probably never stopped being it.

Skye was literally kicking and screaming to get out of his hold, kept digging her fingernails into Jack’s arm to force him to let go of her, but all of it was to absolutely no avail.

“Missed me?” he hissed into her ear as he began half dragging, half carrying Skye back down the corridor into the direction she had come from.

“You’re dead!” Skye shouted, her voice full of fear and panic. “I shot you, why aren’t you dead?”

Jack didn’t bother to explain his sudden reappearance, though. He merely chuckled at her efforts as the young woman still struggled futilely against his tight grasp and kept yelling at him to let her go.

He carried Skye down the stairs and back into the now familiar maze of corridors she had just barely managed to escape earlier. And with every step he took, every meter she was forced back into this prison she had already thought herself free of, her desperation grew and her fighting spirit weakened.

Her screams had turned into sobs by the time they were nearing their destination. This part of the complex was unfamiliar to Skye, but as she caught sight of the open door at the end of the corridor they were just walking through, panic rose in her once more and she shook her head frantically, looking up at Jack.

“No, please, please don’t do that! Don’t put me in there again, I’m begging you!”

He still paid no heed to her pleading, however, and continued to drag Skye forward. Being no match for his physical strength, the young hacker had no choice but to follow along, even though there was pure terror racing through her body.

As they were getting closer, she could now get a better look into the dark room ahead of her, and there it was. The chair. The chair in which she had spent hours of both agonising torture and terrifying isolation alone in the darkness.

By the time they passed the doorway, Skye was openly panicking, her breathing frantic and her body trembling, but Jack still ignored her. He pushed her into the chair and picked up a roll of duct tape from the floor, that had been waiting for them, and started to tape her arms to the armrests of the chair. Skye kept struggling, tried to get up again, but Jack forced her down, his tight grip leaving bruises all over her skin.

He didn’t say a word as he immobilised first Skye’s arms and then her legs, even though the young woman still occasionally begged him to stop. Only when he was finished and headed towards the exit, did he stop and turn to face her for a moment.

“I hope you took a good look around upstairs, because it will be a long time until you see anything outside of this room again.” He smirked as he started to close the door behind him, his eyes lingering on Skye for a few more seconds.

“Have fun,” he wished her almost happily, before closing the door completely and a few moments later, Skye actually heard the turning of a key in the door lock.

The sound ripped through her with an intensity she had not expected. It was enough to destroy any attempts of denial her mind had made so far, and reality hit her with an unrelenting force.

She was trapped, locked up for good, and there would be no way out of this. That false promise of freedom that Jack had enjoyed so much to dangle in front of her was gone now and there was nothing left to do but to await whatever else he still had in store for her.

Because the truth was that there would be no escape, no rescue. This was it, this was everything she had left now. She was Jack’s prisoner and whatever happened to her now, whether she lived or died, it was his decision. And his alone.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That awkward moment when you realise that you obviously have to be a horrible person to come up with stuff like this... ;)  
> Please leave hate mail and other comments in the box below, alright?


	14. All The Difference

It had been a while since the team had split up to work on different angles of their objective to find Skye, and Ward still found himself in the cargo hold, trying to clear his head by venting his pent up energy on the punching bag. He had been here a lot longer than he had originally intended, but he still felt agitated as he just couldn’t seem to wrap his head around the latest developments in their mission.

It wasn’t as if he didn’t worry about Skye, because he did, and a small part of him still believed in her and was convinced that she wouldn’t betray him. Not again.

The wary and overly cautious part of him always gained the upper hand, though, reminding him of the note she had left ( _did she really write it?_ ) and of how he had once defended her against any allegations of treason, only to later find her in Miles Lydon’s apartment. He had believed in her then, too, the idea that she would betray the team seeming almost preposterous.

 _So long_.

The words ripped through his mind relentlessly, causing Ward to throw a particularly forceful punch at the bag, making it swing heavily back and forth.

Was the situation different this time, was Skye really in danger, or had she played them again?

Ward’s personal opinion didn’t really seem to matter at this point, though, as they were now searching for their missing hacker with all the resources they had regardless, as she was both, a possibly kidnapped team mate and the strongest lead they had on their original target, Dr. O’Leary.

So what difference did it make if he couldn’t bring himself to search for her as a friend and team mate, but only as an agent pursuing a mission? The result would be the same, he kept telling himself, but then why was he feeling so torn up about this?

Ward let out a cry of frustration as he hit the punching bag hard one last time, before he stepped away from it and started to unwrap the tape from around his hands. As he turned around, he suddenly came face to face with a significantly startled looking Fitz, who had just come out of the lab.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you,” the engineer muttered awkwardly as he glanced from Ward to the still swinging punching bag.

“It’s okay, I’m done anyway. You’re finished with Skye’s laptop already?” Ward asked, looking up from the white tape, not really caring that Fitz had witnessed his little outburst.

“I’ve got a few more diagnostics running, but honestly, I don’t really think that I’ll find anything else useful. Jemma went back up to the command centre to see how Agent Haze is coming along with cross-referencing the surveillance material. Speaking of her,” Leo lowered his voice conspiratorially and glanced around as if afraid that they might be overheard, “what do you think of Coulson putting Haze on the team with us?

I mean, I guess it wasn’t the worst idea to get one of those communication types on the case as long as Skye isn’t here, and it’s not like she isn’t helping, but now that we know that she’s practically been _spying_ on Skye... Who knows what kind of intel she has on all of us, really?”

“Why, got something to hide?” Ward replied somewhat teasingly, before becoming serious again. “Well, I guess it was pretty obvious that I didn’t like the idea at first, either, but if Coulson wants her on the team for this, she’s on the team. Not much you or I could do about that. And as you said, she really seems to be helping, so maybe we should give her the benefit of the doubt.”

He had finished unwrapping his hands by now and headed towards the spiral staircase, planning to get a quick shower before joining the rest of the team again.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” Fitz agreed hesitantly, “and Coulson does seem to have a good instinct when picking his team, so I guess it will be fine.”

“Mostly, yes,” Ward replied, his back already turned to the engineer, so he couldn’t see the exasperated look on his face at his remark.

“You’re joking, right?” Fitz asked, both disbelief and anger in his voice, causing the other agent to turn back around. “You can’t seriously still believe that Skye just abandoned you during that mission. _Right?_ ”

“What difference does it make?” the specialist replied, asking Fitz what he kept asking himself. “We’re putting everything we have on this, so I’m sure we’re going to find Skye sooner or later, no matter what I think she did.”

The engineer held his gaze for a long moment, his expression absolutely sincere as he finally answered.

“It makes _all_ the difference, Ward. I know that Skye loves us, we’re her friends and even though she made a mistake once, that’s in the past now. There is just no way that she left that hotel room voluntarily; she must have been kidnapped and we have all wasted too much time doubting her already. The least we can do now is to believe in her.”

“We’ve been over all of this, Fitz,” Ward argued exasperatedly. “There was no sign of forced entry or any struggle back in the hotel room.”

“So what?” Leo asked in return, equally agitated. “Maybe her kidnappers knocked, claiming to be room service and overwhelmed her before she had much of a chance to fight back. Or they overrode the lock and got the jump on her. They hacked a SHIELD tracking device, Ward, I’m sure they wouldn’t have had much of a problem with a cheap electronic door lock. The only thing I don’t understand is why you are this convinced that Skye left us willingly. You are her S.O., you should have more faith in her than that,” the scientist all but shouted now, clearly fed up with Ward’s stubborn behaviour. The agent in question wasn’t in the mood to take kindly to Fitz’s attitude, though, and so he responded in kind.

“I did have complete faith in her once, I even vouched for her to Coulson, but she chose to throw all that away for the Rising Tide, or rather for Miles Lydon. And now she is probably with him again and she has us all worried for absolutely no reason.”

Fitz shook his head, not buying it.

“No. No, Skye wouldn’t do that, not after everything that’s happened. She’s one of us and if she ever decided to leave the team, she would come clean and say so, not sneak away on a mission. As far as her ex-boyfriend is concerned, after how things ended between them I don’t think that she would ever be willing to work with him again. You know how important her ideals are for Skye, and he betrayed those ideals for money. I’m sure she pretty much hates him now and there is no way she would betray us again, especially not for him!”

“You believe that, because you want to believe it. Because you’ve had a crush on Skye since the moment she set foot on this plane, but the truth is that we know almost nothing about her. She had been with the Rising Tide for years and you think that she completely turned her back on them after a few months with us? She must have gotten a couple of her hacker friends to help her and Miles to remove our tags and now she’s gone. _So long_ , that’s it, that’s all she had to say to us.”

The colour of Leo’s cheeks proofed all too clearly that Ward had struck a nerve with his remark about the scientist’s feelings for their missing team mate, but he ignored it as he shook his head vigorously. Instead he kept trying to put some sense back into his fellow agent.

“No, you’re wrong about Skye. You made up your mind about her based on fake evidence and your hurt feelings and now you refuse to see the truth, because accepting that you’ve made a mistake would also mean accepting that you’ve let Skye down, that you didn’t protect her when she needed you most.”

“You don’t know—“

“Yes, I do. And so do you,” Fitz continued decisively, staring at Ward without backing down. “There was someone else at Skye’s computer, Ward. Don’t you think it just might be possible that this person was also the one who left the note for you – for us – to find? To make sure that we wouldn’t go looking for her?”

“We don’t even know for sure that there was someone else there. The only ‘proof’ for that you have is what, that the cleanup of the laptop wasn’t as thorough as Skye’s usual work? How about, she was in a hurry? Or that she didn’t even bother to delete that data completely, because all she wanted was to buy herself a few more hours to get away?”

Both men were silent for a moment as Fitz’s expression hardened. In general he was someone who got worked up when he became angry, but right now he was completely calm – at least on the outside – as he fixated Ward with an icy glare.

“You coward.” His voice was cold and hard, barely sounding anything like the usually so exuberant scientist.

“ _Excuse_ me?” Ward pressed out, his eyes narrowed and his voice dangerously low.

However, Fitz didn’t give an inch and instead stood up a little straighter, as if he was trying not to be intimidated by Ward’s towering form.

“You heard me. You’re a coward, because you’d rather take the risk of Skye having been kidnapped and perhaps fearing for her life right now than the chance of getting hurt and looking like a fool again if you chase after her for nothing. You’re right, I don’t have absolute proof that she has been taken against her will, but neither do you for your theory that she left voluntarily. But I would rather put my money on Skye and do everything I can to find her, even if it does turn out that she simply bailed on us, making me the biggest idiot on the planet. I know you don’t have much experience with being a team player, Ward, but being part of a team means that sometimes you just have to have faith in your team mates, even if all of your instincts are telling you not to.”

For a moment Ward just stood there, thunderstruck, looking in disbelief at the scientist in front of him, not knowing what to say. He didn’t get the chance to reply anything, though, as Agent Simmons suddenly spoke up, standing over at the door. Judging by the embarrassed look on her face, she had been standing there for quite a while now, but hadn’t dared to interrupt the intense argument.

“Guys, I really think you should come up to the command centre. Agent Haze found something.”

 

* * *

 

“What do you have?” Agent Coulson asked the moment he and Agent May walked through the door into the command centre. They had been the last to join the team, so Agent Haze didn’t waste any more time to present her findings to the group.

“I was able to use some of the servers back at the Hub for the data analysis, and thanks to the additional processing power, we already got a hit from the surveillance tapes. This one is from the street where Miles Lydon worked.” She typed on the keyboard for a few seconds until a video from a cctv camera started playing on the main screen.

The scene on the video didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. Just a normal busy street with a few shops, a restaurant and lots of passers-by. Apparently Miles Lydon had worked in one of the shops, but they didn’t catch a glimpse of him.

“See this guy?” Agent Haze asked, pointing at a dark haired man sitting outside the restaurant, reading.

“Yes, what about him?” Ward replied, not sure what the agent expected them to see.

“Well, he appears to be a regular customer of that restaurant. He has been there three times in the week before Lydon’s disappearance.”

“So?”

“Well, I’ll admit that that doesn’t sound very remarkable on its own. He didn’t act suspicious or anything, either, and he never interacted with Lydon, so it’s no surprise that the SHIELD team that analysed these videos before didn’t take notice of him. But I guess the fact that he was also here in Colorado Springs only two hours before Skye disappeared is more than a coincidence.”

She put up another video on the screen, this time showing the area in front of the hotel where Ward and Skye had set up their base for the operation. The tape was obviously from the hotel’s security camera. It showed the same man as before, this time wearing a baseball cap and pressing a cell phone to his ear. He was barely recognisable from this angle, but there was one moment when he turned his head to glance up at the hotel, allowing for a perfect shot of his face.

Agent Haze stopped the recording, giving everyone the chance to take a good look at the man.

“I sent the picture through every database, and while our suspect doesn’t have any kind of criminal history, he does have an army file. His name is Evan Halford. He has mostly been doing freelance security work since he left the army, but nothing particularly interesting or out of the ordinary. Nothing that would link him to Dr. O’Leary or Centipede.

But I managed to track his movements after he passed by the hotel for a while, using several different camera sources,” Haze explained and tapped a command into the computer, starting a quick series of one or two second videos, showing the suspect making his way across the city. The last video, which remained on the screen, showed him talking to a tall blonde man, who unfortunately kept his back to the camera the entire time, making it impossible to identify him.

“Is there no other angle?” Coulson asked, looking slightly disappointed.

“Well, that’s the last surveillance footage of the suspect, who was already following Miles, and the only tape I found at all showing his contact.” She pointed at the blond man on the screen. “After this they enter the parking garage behind them and we don’t see them coming out again. But I was able to find this.” She hit a few more keys and a bright picture showing a few high school girls posing together popped up on the screen. It took a few seconds for the team to realise that it was showing the same location as before, just from the opposite angle. In the corner of the picture, though small and blurred, were the two men from before.

“I know you can’t recognise much, but Agent Fitz, I was hoping that you could give it a go and see if you can get the image clearer.”

“Yes, of course,” the engineer nodded as he stepped in front of the computer table and started to run one of his visual enhancement programs on the picture. In the meantime Agent May kept looking at the screen, one eyebrow raised slightly in surprise.

“Where did you find that?” she asked, indicating the image.

“I noticed some kids in the background of the surveillance tape taking pictures, and what do you know, they already posted them on social media sites.” She noticed Ward’s look and elaborated with a smile on her lips. “Something I picked up on during my latest surveillance stint. That girl of yours really knows what she’s doing with a computer.”

“She’s not my girl,” Ward replied with a somewhat sour look on his face, but his expression softened as he continued, “but yeah, she does.”

“Got it!” Fitz suddenly announced, lifting his fist in a small victory gesture. He tapped one last key in a slightly showy manner and gestured at the screen.

“Voilá! Meet our newest mystery man.” He and the rest of the team turned to look at the now enlarged and enhanced picture of the blond, rather handsome man, dressed in casual clothes, who was talking to their first suspect. He didn’t make a very dangerous or intimidating impression, which made Agent Haze’s reaction even more puzzling.

“Oh, God,” she gasped and as the others turned to look at her, they noticed right away how pale she had become.

“What?” Simmons asked, immediately concerned. “What’s wrong?”

Agent Haze took a deep breath, then looked at each of the other agents in turn until her eyes came to rest on Coulson.

“I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid Skye didn’t leave voluntarily after all. There is only one explanation for _his_ involvement in this,” she explained, pointing at the man on the screen, “and that is that Skye was taken against her will and...,” the agent hesitated for a second, swallowing noticeably, “and chances are that she is probably being tortured for information as we speak.”

 **To be continued...**  


	15. Why Don’t We Make A Deal?

If being locked up in the dark had been horrible before, it was completely unbearable now, as Skye was back in her cell, once again tied down to the same chair where not too long ago she had been tortured for hours until she had finally broken under the pain. Her eyes were darting around without seeing anything and she was shivering uncontrollably, although it wasn’t from the cold.

Skye had thought that she would be used to the complete blackness around her by now, but its effect on her was worse than ever, as she felt like it was pressing down on her, suffocating her. Her breathing was laboured and in the back of her mind she wondered whether she had gone into shock after what had just happened.

Only a few minutes had passed since her escape attempt had come to a harsh and abrupt ending as Jack had suddenly reappeared out of nowhere and, after easily overpowering her, had literally dragged her back down here into what, in Skye’s mind, was easily the most terrifying place on the planet.

She had really thought that she was going to make it, that she was going to escape and get the hell out of here, but now she had to realise that she had only been making a fool of herself.

There was no way that she would make it out of here on her own, she simply wasn’t good enough. She wasn’t strong, she wasn’t a fighter and even though she had always considered herself pretty smart, there was also no denying the fact that Jack had outwitted her at every turn ever since she had woken up in this place.

Since before that, actually, if she also counted him convincing her team that she had betrayed them so they wouldn’t come looking for her.

She didn’t know how he had pulled it off, but letting her believe that he was dead, that she had actually managed to free herself from him, only to lock her back up the moment she thought freedom was finally in her grasp had to have been his cruellest move, yet.

Skye sobbed quietly in the silence of her cell, her laboured breaths the only other noise in her solitude. She had been completely overcome by despair by now, as there just didn’t seem to be any reason left for her to keep fighting.

She was beaten, in every sense of the word, but while a part of her simply felt dead inside, in a strange way it was also kind of a relief. There would be no more struggle, no more torture. When Jack came back she would tell him what he wanted to know, do whatever he wanted her to do and just hope that at some point this would all be over.

Skye shuddered as she imagined what her team would be thinking of her if they could see her now.

Weak. Hopeless.

Broken.

But what did it matter, really? They were out there somewhere, completely clueless, and she was in here, alone and forced to look out for herself.

What did it matter if all of Ward’s lessons had been for nothing? If she was letting Coulson down again after he had given her a second chance? If all of Fitzsimmon’s good faith had been misplaced and if she was blowing her one chance of proving Agent May wrong?

“Guess I wasn’t a good fit, after all,” she muttered silently, not even realising that she was speaking her thoughts out loud.

Feeling stupid, Skye shook her head and attempted to roll her shoulders as she tried to shake the haunting images of her team mates from her mind. Her entire body felt stiff and sore after her futile struggle against Jack earlier, but that wasn’t the reason why she suddenly grimaced in pain and froze in her movements. The injury to her left hand she had accidentally inflicted upon herself while breaking open the staircase door was flaming up again, after the shock of being captured once more had forced it from her mind for the time being. Of course Skye couldn’t see anything, but it felt like the cut was bleeding again, a warm liquid running down her hand in a slow but constant flow. She heaved a heavy sigh which turned into a humourless laugh as the vague idea that she might actually die from this crossed her mind.

How ironic – and also kind of pathetic – would it be, if after all of this the one thing that finally got her was a cut in the hand that no one else but herself was responsible for?

She had already been feeling weak during her escape, which hadn’t been all that surprising, considering the circumstances and the fact that she had thrown up the only food she had had during her entire imprisonment. Now that the rush of adrenaline that had kept her going was gone, though, and she was also losing blood, her condition was becoming much worse very quickly.

Skye sighed once more as her eyelids started to droop, fatigue beginning to weigh her down. She didn’t fight it, though. Instead she welcomed it, only hoping for a dreamless sleep to get her out of this place even if only for a little while.

 

* * *

 

As Skye woke up again, she kept her eyes closed for a moment, letting her remaining senses take in her surroundings first. She was still tied to the chair, that much was obvious, and her hand was killing her by now, pain pulsating from the wound with every heartbeat. But something was different.

The young woman couldn’t quite place it at first, her mind still half asleep. Even when she felt someone taking a gentle hold of her injured hand, she didn’t fight it; although it did prompt her eyelids to flutter open sluggishly. At this point Skye realised that the thing that was different than before was that the lights had been turned on and a moment later she finally figured out why.

Jack was sitting next to her on a plain wooden stool he must have brought in and he was holding her injured hand in one hand, a frightening looking syringe in the other. Skye flinched and pulled her hand back as far as she could while her arms where still tied down, hissing from the pain the sudden movement caused.

Jack rolled his eyes as he watched her reaction, but he didn’t reach out for her again and instead gave her a moment to gather herself and calm down again.

“You’re bleeding,” he finally stated matter-of-factly and added, “and I’m sure it hurts. So why don’t you hold still and let me patch that up for you?”

Skye completely ignored the question and instead kept staring at Jack incredulously.

“You were dead.” Her voice was full of disbelief, her pain completely forgotten for the moment. “I shot you, I saw you die. How are you still alive? And don’t tell me you were wearing a vest, because I saw the blood from the wound.”

Jack remained silent for a long moment as he kept watching Skye thoughtfully, as if trying to decide how to answer her. He was the one in control, there was no doubt about that, and they both knew it; so it wasn’t as if he had to tell her anything. If he wanted her to hold still to treat her injury, he could simply force her to do that, too, but in the end he obviously decided to choose a different tactic anyway.

“I want to treat your hand, so it doesn’t get infected and you don’t lose anymore blood and you want answers, so why don’t we make a deal? You hold still and I’ll tell you.”

Skye eyed her kidnapper sceptically, unsure what to make of his sudden almost friendly behaviour. Judging by what she knew about Jack so far, she was sure that he never did anything without an agenda, but she couldn’t quite figure out what he wanted to achieve this time. Not yet, anyway.

However, as she really wanted to know how he had survived being shot, and the cut in her hand did need treatment, she decided that it was best to just play along for now.

“Alright.” She nodded slowly, still wary of Jack’s intentions. Her reluctance suddenly seemed more than justified, as he now pulled out the knife from his belt, but the blond man quickly explained his actions.

“I can’t reach the wound properly with your arm taped down like that, so I’m going to cut you loose. But you’re not stupid enough anymore to try anything, right?” He watched Skye closely, but the young woman was being completely sincere as she answered him.

“No.” If she had had even one arm free right after she had been brought here, she would have tried anything and everything in her power to free herself, to reach for a weapon, maybe something to remove the rest of the duct tape with, but now she knew better. Now she knew that all it would get her were a few more bruises, a dislocated shoulder maybe or even a broken arm, but not any closer to freedom. Not even an inch.

Skye sat completely motionless as Jack proceeded to free her arm from the duct tape tying her to the chair. She barely even flinched as he took her hand in his and slowly began to remove the now soaked through makeshift bandage she had wrapped around it earlier.

She clenched her teeth and started breathing more heavily as the pain intensified from the movement, but remained quiet otherwise; she was willing herself not to show any weakness in front of her kidnapper.

“This is just for the pain in your hand. It is not going to knock you out,” Jack explained as he raised the syringe and stung her with it, but Skye kept looking away from him and only acknowledged his words with a quick nod in reply.

After he put the syringe back down onto a metal tray lying on the ground next to him, Jack stood up and leaned against the wall at his usual spot next to the now closed door, so he was facing the young woman directly.

“The anaesthetic is going to take a moment to kick in, so you might as well ask your questions now.”

Skye nodded once again, but took a moment to consider this offer, biting her bottom lip absentmindedly in the process. As she finally asked Jack a question, she was sure it wasn’t exactly what he had expected.

“Is Miles still alive?” The young woman somehow managed to keep her voice entirely neutral, suppressing the faint hope she had been holding onto, that she and Miles would both make it out of this alive.

Her kidnapper was obviously surprised by this inquiry, but he, too, managed to hide his reaction fairly well.

“Why do you ask me that?”

“I found his hand. In a fridge,” she explained, shuddering at the memory. “I knew it was his, because he has this scar... _had_ this scar...” She shook her head as if reprimanding herself for using the wrong tense. “So, is he dead?”

There was a long moment of silence, but then Jack finally answered.

“Yes,” he simply replied, not elaborating further. But Skye needed to know more.

“Why? Because of me?” She knew the answer to this one already. Of course she had been the reason for Miles’ death. For his involvement in all of this.

“Because he was no longer useful.”

A small part of her was actually grateful to Jack for this answer, but it didn’t really manage to alleviate her guilt. She had one more question left for now, but for some reason it was the hardest one yet, and Skye hesitated long to ask it.

“Did he have to suffer?” She looked straight at Jack as she waited for his answer, needing to see his reaction, to know that he was telling her the truth.

“A whole lot less than you,” Jack replied, appearing absolutely sincere. “He was unconscious when I cut off his hand and his death was quick. Probably didn’t even feel it.”

“Good,” Skye nodded, doing her best to keep herself from breaking down. She averted her eyes from Jack and looked at her free hand instead, noticing that the pain from the cut had become dull by now. She flexed her fingers a few times, confirming that the entire hand was numb.

“I think the anaesthetic is working now,” she muttered, eager to focus on anything else than Miles’ death.

“Alright.” Jack sat back down next to her and Skye held out her arm to him, her face turned in the other direction as he began to work. She didn’t need to see him stinging a needle into her skin over and over again, or watch the blood still flowing from the cut. She wasn’t particularly squeamish about these things, but that didn’t mean that she wanted to get a closer look at it, either.

Only now and then did she risk a glance. At the beginning, when Jack was only cleaning and disinfecting the wound, it wasn’t that gross to watch, but when he picked up the needle and thread, the young woman turned around again quickly, preferring to look away after all.

The thought of Jack working on her hand was bringing back images she would rather forget, however, images of a jar filled with liquid, or of the man she once thought she loved on the ground, writhing in pain, cradling his bloody arm...

Skye needed to focus on something else, anything really, and so she finally asked the one thing she was still curious about.

“How did you do it? How did you survive getting shot? I saw you die!” She glanced over at Jack again, careful to only look at his face and not the half sewn-up cut he was working on.

He actually chuckles briefly at this, but kept his eyes on the young woman’s hand as he answered her.

“There were blanks in the gun. What you saw was nothing but a bag of red paint, a few special effects and some decent acting. I knew you weren’t going to check if I was really dead. You’re not a killer, Skye, I knew you’d panic. You’ve never shot anyone before and you haven’t yet. Be glad for that.” His words sounded completely honest and he had abandoned his work for now and was looking up at Skye, their eyes meeting.

It took a moment for her to process his words, to figure out what it all meant.

“So you planned all of that?” she suddenly exclaimed and Jack shrugged, admitting it freely.

“But that means...” Her eyes grew wide as Skye finally realised what had been going on. “It was all staged, wasn’t it? Everything. You letting me take the gun, the light going out, even... even the light bulb flickering earlier, so it wouldn’t seem too suspicious. Oh, God.” Tears started running down Skye’s cheeks, but she pressed her lips together to not make a sound. She hated herself for crying in front of Jack, but she just couldn’t help it.

The discovery that he had been playing her all this time, that in fact her entire escape attempt had been part of his plan was simply too much to take.

“And I fell for that,” Skye continued, her voice constricted with tears and desperation. “I actually believed that that was me, that I had accomplished something, that I could take care of myself.”

She turned her head away so she wouldn’t have to face Jack and absentmindedly tried to cradle her hand against her chest, but the blond man quickly held it back, assuring Skye that he was almost done.

He worked for a few more minutes in silence and after he had finished, he picked up the role of duct tape again to tie Skye’s arm to the chair once more. Only this time the hacker didn’t struggle. She just let it happen, knowing that resistance would be futile anyway.

However, as Jack got up from his stool, she looked back up at him again, one more question burning in her mind, making her forget her desolate appearance.

“Why?” she demanded to know. “Why did you do it? What was the point of all this?”

Jack reached out to her face, but as a part of Skye was already expecting him to hit her, he simply laid a hand on her cheek gently, wiping her tears away with his thump. The tone of his voice was almost consoling as he spoke.

“To show you that all those thoughts you had of escaping, your hope of being rescued, it’s an illusion, all of it. Nothing but make-believe.”

Skye swallowed hard as she kept staring at Jack, not knowing what to say to that. The opportunity to reply anything quickly passed, however, as he now crouched down in front of the young woman and looked at her intensely.

“I know you want all of this to stop, and eventually it will; the question is only ‘how’?” He paused for a moment, letting his words sink in. As he finally continued, the look in his eyes was solemn, his words dead serious.

“Do you want to die, Skye? Because if you do, that can be arranged. All it takes is a single bullet, a real one this time, and it’s all over. You won’t even feel a thing, I promise. But if you want to live, if you want to have a future, you’ll have to cooperate with me from now on. We’ll be a team, you and I, and you have my word that you will make it out of this alive.”

He held Skye’s gaze for a long time, but his eyes weren’t threatening as before, but instead urging her to accept his offer.

“Now tell me, what is it going to be, Skye? Do you want to take the quick way out?” A few more seconds passed, until the young woman finally shook her head, slowly but decisively.

“No,” she almost whispered, all traces of defiance drained from her voice. “No, I don’t want to die.”

“Good,” Jack replied. “I didn’t think so. But then I need you to always tell me the truth from here on out, alright?”

After not even a second’s hesitation, the young hacker nodded her head briefly, completely surrendering to her kidnapper’s demands.

His fingers gently brushed across her cheek once more before he moved away from Skye and gave her as much space as he could. He sat down on the ground next to the door and leaned back against the wall, making himself comfortable as if he were just a friend stopping by, and not a kidnapper questioning his prisoner.

“Alright, then tell me about the first time you hacked into SHIELD’s communications. You did that from your van with just a laptop, right? That couldn’t have been easy.”

Skye looked back at Jack, his demeanour no longer intimidating, but friendly and openly interested. She knew that he hadn’t changed, that he had just altered the approach to his interrogation, but she still felt how any last reservations she might have had about answering his questions crumbled away in this moment.

She had no hope left of being rescued, or escaping herself, so if she wanted to live he was all she had left. Answering his questions was her only option now, her only chance at staying alive and she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to take it.

 

* * *

 

As Skye and Jack were talking, he glanced up at the camera on the wall behind the young woman a few times, knowing that his progress was being watched. He didn’t particularly like being observed during his work, but he also knew that that was the entire point of all of this, to prove what they could do.

A man and a woman were standing in front of the monitor on the other end of the connection, watching the scene in the cell intently.

“How long has she been here?” the woman asked, glancing up at her companion.

He was extremely tall, towering over her rather petite form, but she didn’t seem to be intimidated by his presence at all.

“Two days and my man has already managed to break her.” He seemed to be extremely proud of this accomplishment, a big grin spreading across his lips.

“That’s impressive,” the woman admitted, sounding absolutely sincere. “To think that he has managed to gain this level of cooperation from her in that short amount of time. Did he torture her?”

“In the beginning, yes. But once he gets into someone’s head he doesn’t even need to hurt them anymore. They’ll just do whatever he wants.”

She nodded quietly as she took note of his words, her eyes never leaving the monitor.

“You said you first captured one of her hacker friends. Is he dead?” the woman wondered, her voice not giving away the purpose of her questions.

“Yes.”

“Did _he_ shoot him?” she asked, nodding at the monitor.

“No, I did.”

“ _Why_?” She had directed her attention towards the man beside her now, looking up at him expectantly.

“We had the tracking bracelet and he had already told us everything he knew about SHIELD and his ex-girlfriend. Jack said he didn’t need him to get to the girl, so I got rid of him. I think you should never make things more complicated than they have to be.”

She watched him quietly for a moment, one eyebrow arched slightly, but then she moved her attention back to the monitor in front of her.

“Indeed.”

About a minute passed by in silence until the woman spoke again.

“How long has this Jack been a part of your organisation?” she wondered, still watching the screen closely.

“Not very long. He’s more of a freelancer, but he believes in what we’re trying to achieve, what you and I are both trying to achieve, to level the playing field between humanity and all those aliens and monsters that are out there. But not by teaming up with them like SHIELD is doing.”

He grimaced at the mention, appalled by the mere thought of cooperating with a being from another world. He continued quickly, though, eager to make a good impression on the woman next to him.

“Now, you gave me this operation as a test and I told you we were up to it. My men found the SHIELD team, its weakest link and now you have a cooperating SHIELD agent right at your disposal. Consider her my gift to your boss, something to cement our future alliance.”

He held out his hand to her, but the woman did not take it. Instead she laid one hand on the man’s shoulder and ran it down his arm in an almost intimate gesture, her voice warm and considerate as she spoke.

“No, thank you, but I did not come here to take the girl with me, only to observe your progress. And it is very... promising.” She smiled again, but then turned away from him and started to make her way towards the exit.

The man grimaced slightly at having his attempt at a handshake rejected, but he followed the woman anyway, not giving up yet.

“My men and I can be useful for you and your cause. Let us join Centipede and together our two organisations are going to be unstoppable. You have the money and the gadgets, but I have the numbers. Men who believe in our cause and a lot of them are trained experts like Jack. SHIELD will catch up with you eventually, no matter how well your boss plans each of his moves. And if you face war, it’s better if you have an army of your own.”

They had almost made it to the front door of the complex as the woman stopped in her tracks and looked up at the tall man once more, her eyes having a strangely soothing effect on him.

“This is not my decision to make, I will merely relate your words. But be certain that they will be considered carefully. I will leave now, but please feel free to give my regards to your men and tell them how impressed I was with their work.” She gave him another quick smile as he proceeded to walk her to the exit.

“I will,” he replied, hoping that this was a good sign for their possible future cooperation.

“Nice dress, by the way,” he remarked almost charmingly, looking down at her colourful attire.

“Yes, isn’t it?” Her voice was soft and gentle, seeming oddly misplaced, just like her outfit, considering the things they had been discussing. “Who doesn’t like flowers?”

She smiled as he opened the door for her and she stepped outside, a car already waiting for her.

“I hope I’m going to hear from you soon,” he called after her, and as the driver opened the door for her, the woman turned to look at him one last time before getting into the car.

“If the Clairvoyant has a use for you, you will.”

**To be continued...**


	16. Repercussions

…

“I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid Skye didn’t leave voluntarily after all. There is only one explanation for _his_ involvement in this,” Haze explained, pointing at the man on the screen, “and that is that Skye was taken against her will and...,” the agent hesitated for a second, swallowing noticeably, “and chances are that she is probably being tortured for information as we speak.”

…

 The words went through the room like a shockwave, leaving a group of shell-shocked agents in its wake. Fitz and Simmons exchanged a startled and slightly panicked glance with each other, while only the tightening of Agent May’s lips and the way she clenched her jaw betrayed her surprise and concern. Coulson’s eyes widened slightly as he looked at the blonde agent in front of him, but before he could reply anything to her sudden revelation, Ward beat him to it, shock and fear etched into his features all too clearly.

“How do you know that? Who is that guy?” he asked, pointing angrily at the screen. He felt like the world was spinning around him, quickly getting out of control. This couldn’t be true, it just couldn’t be.

The fear he had felt after finding the hotel room deserted returned, but ten times worse this time, now that horrible suspicions turned into certainty.

“His real name is Curtis Tyler, but he’s probably going by a different name at the moment. He uses a new alias every time he is on a job,” Agent Haze began to explain. “He’s a mercenary and a skilled interrogator. He gets hired to make people talk and his repertoire usually involves physical torture, mental abuse, brainwashing... whatever gets him results.” Haze paused for a moment, but none of the others spoke up, all of them far too shocked by what the agent had just told them. As she finally continued, it was more than obvious how rattled she herself was by the turn this mission had suddenly taken.

“I never met Tyler personally, but I saw the repercussions of his work a few years ago during an operation I was involved in. The details are classified, but it all came down to two groups fighting over a dangerous piece of technology and SHIELD stepping in to keep it from falling into either of their hands. We had a lead on the man who kept the item hidden, but “Alex”, as Tyler called himself back then, got to him first. We found the guy a few days later, clear signs of torture all over his body, although no life-threatening injuries. Still, we couldn’t get him to talk. At all.

As far as I know, it took several months until he started speaking again, but he never said anything about what happened to him. We eventually caught someone from Tyler’s group and he gave up his friends to get a deal. That is, all of them except Tyler. We knew he was involved; I’m not sure if he was just doing the dirty work or if he was also calling the shots, but either way, in the end he got away. Everyone was simply too scared to give us anything on him.” Haze sighed, as if frustrated that this failure of her past had come back to haunt her and Coulson’s team now.

“After that I tried to keep track of him, but he barely ever resurfaced. Most of the time he’s like a ghost. There were only two instances where I could link him to a case involving torture, but both times the victim refused to identify him.”

“Then how can you even be sure it was him?” Simmons asked, her voice timid as she was obviously still shocked by what she was hearing.

“I spoke to them myself, I showed them his picture and there was no mistaking the fear in their eyes. Whatever Tyler did to these people, that terror stayed with them, even after they were safe again.”

After Haze finished her explanations, a heavy silence lay over the room for a moment, until Fitz spoke unexpectedly, his voice trembling slightly.

“And now that guy has Skye at his mercy.” He was stating the obvious, really, but hearing it this clearly still sent a chill through the group.

“Which means that we are going to do everything we can to find her,” Coulson suddenly announced, effectively pulling everyone out of their stupor. The look in his eyes was fierce, adamant, and it was clear that there was _nothing_ that would stop him from finding his team’s missing rookie. Not now that he knew how desperately she needed them.

“Agent Haze, is there anything you can think of that could help us track Tyler down?” he asked, hoping that this past connection between the computer expert and Skye’s kidnapper would actually help them find her more quickly.

The blonde agent hesitated for a moment, then stepped back to the computer and pulled up SHIELD’s log-in screen.

“Maybe there is; I’m just not sure how much good this lead will do us. Just... let me find my file on this.” While she was logging herself into SHIELD’s system, Agent May turned to face her, her arms crossed in front of her chest. On the surface, the specialist appeared as professional as ever, but the tone of her voice was noticeably harsher than usual, betraying her worry all too clearly.

“What else do you know about Tyler?”

Haze kept typing during her answer, not even having to look at the file first.

“He’s former military. He was in Iraq until he got dishonourably discharged, apparently for attacking a superior officer. His file is clean otherwise, but going by how little paperwork there was on the incident that got him kicked out, I always suspected that there must have been something more to it. Here he is.” She had finished typing and was now looking up at the screen, which was showing two pictures.

The first one was from Tyler’s military file, showing him in his uniform, while the second photo featured a young woman with short red hair and several tattoos running up her arms and neck.

“That’s Olivia Campbell, one of Tyler’s only known associates. She is currently running an electronics store up in Toronto, selling everything from computer chips and software to fake IDs and passports.”

“So she’s a forger.” It was more of a statement than a question, but Agent May still looked at Haze for confirmation.

“Yes, one of the best in the business. And one of the most careful, too. We know that she supplies Tyler with all the papers he needs, but we have never been able to track him down through this.”

As Coulson kept looking at the picture, he was unconsciously mimicking May’s posture, his arms crossed in front of his chest and his expression sceptical. There was something bothering him about this latest bit of information, and it wasn’t just that it seemed as if they were going to have to take another detour to finally find Skye.

“Alright, so she’s good, but _Canada_?” he asked, his brow furrowed. “There are plenty of good forgers here in the States; why would Tyler go to the trouble of having to deal with someone across the border, if he could get the same thing here easily?”

“Because she’s the only one he trusts. She’s his sister,” Agent Haze replied, visibly frustrated. “Which is why I’m afraid it’s a waste of time to go after her. She isn’t going to help us.”

“We’ll see,” Coulson remarked, his voice completely calm now. He was just glad to finally have a lead to follow at all, especially now that the stakes were becoming clear at last.

“May, get the plane ready,” he ordered, his motivation easily infecting the rest of the team.

“Wheels up in five,” the pilot replied with her usual line, her expression grim and determined as she gave a small nod to Coulson.

“But she won’t talk,” Agent Haze suddenly interrupted the dynamic atmosphere, before May had even left the room. There was a look of regret written all over her face, and it was clear that she hated to have gotten the team’s hopes up when she didn’t think there was anything to gain in the direction they were going.

“We’ve interrogated Olivia twice without success and she is too careful for surveillance to pick anything up on her. Tyler is her brother and she’s loyal to him even though she knows what he does for a living. I highly doubt she’ll be willing to give him up now.”

The room fell silent once again as the entire team looked at Agent Haze, not really sure what to make of her warnings. In the end it was Ward, who broke the silence, his words resolute and his expression adamant as he looked at the computer expert.

“Maybe, but seeing as her brother has Skye, I don’t think we’ll be leaving her much of a choice. We’ll get her to talk; I’ll make sure of that.” The words hung in the air for a moment, the possible implications of what Ward might be willing to do to get Skye back strikingly obvious. In the end it was May’s voice that cut through the silence, backing her fellow specialist up.

“Yes, we will,” she simply agreed with a short nod at Ward.

The taller agent looked back at Agent May, immeasurably grateful for her support. As he watched her leave to get the plane ready for takeoff, he was certain that the two of them would do whatever needed to be done in order to find their missing rookie. If only they weren’t too late.

 

* * *

Agent Ward was standing in the small bathroom of the Bus, his hands gripping the edges of the sink tightly, and kept staring at his reflection in the mirror. He still had to take a quick shower after his earlier session with the punching bag, but right now he just needed a moment to himself, to calm the burning sensation in his chest, that anger, no, that _rage_ that was threatening to take control over him if he would let it.

Skye had been kidnapped.

It was a simple enough truth, so why had it taken him this long to accept it? Why had it taken Agent Haze’s account for him to even be able to believe it?

_Skye had been kidnapped._

Ward lowered his head, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, as he couldn’t bear looking at his own reflection any longer. The more time he had to let the situation sink in, the more he felt like his insides were burning as the rage coursed through him.

Right now Skye was in the hands of a vicious torturer, going through hell, and everything he had been doing this whole time had been to doubt her and convince himself that she was a traitor.

He laughed humourlessly at the irony, the grip of his fingers intensifying.

If there had been any kind of betrayal happening in all of this, _he_ had been the one, who had betrayed _Skye_. He was her S.O., her team mate, her _friend_ and yet he had done nothing to save her. He had let her be kidnapped by Tyler and his men, even though he was supposed to protect her; he hadn’t gone looking for her; and perhaps worst of all, he hadn’t so much as believed in her.

Ward couldn’t even pretend as if he had simply been fooled, either, because Fitz had known. Right from the beginning he had seen the truth about Skye’s disappearance despite her kidnapper’s efforts to disguise it.

He, the scientist with barely any field experience, who had spent pretty much his entire career in a lab, working on computers and gadgets, had understood the situation better than the trained specialist, for whom reading people was part of his job description.

Skye’s kidnapping wasn’t the only thing Fitz had been right about. He had been right about everything else, too. About calling him out earlier and especially about him being a coward.

During their argument, Ward had accused the younger man of being blinded by his feelings for Skye, but apparently it had been the other way around. Before all of this, Ward had thought that he had forgiven the hacker for what had happened with Miles Lydon, for her lying to the team, but clearly that hadn’t been the case.

There must have been a part of him that had still been angry with her, that had still felt betrayed, and that part had clouded his mind from the second he had laid eyes on the fake message supposedly left by Skye.

Ward glanced back at his reflection and the rage flared up again. He was a coward and a fool, but worse than that, he was a traitor.

He had left Skye to her fate, had forsaken her, and whatever happened now, even if they found her soon and by some miracle she was completely fine, he could never make that go away. He could never undo his actions and he could never get rid of the anger and rage burning in his chest that weren’t directed at Skye’s kidnapper, but at himself, the one person that could have done something to prevent all this.

There was a loud thud and the sound of breaking glass as Ward’s fist connected with the mirror, shattering it into pieces. He didn’t even flinch as he pulled a few small shards of glass out of the skin between his knuckles and didn’t care about the blood running down his hand as he finally stepped into the shower, intend on washing away more than just the lingering smell of sweat.

The bleeding had slowed down a bit by the time Ward was done, so at least he didn’t leave a mess on the floor as he pulled out the gauze from one of the drawers in the wall. He wrapped some of it around his hand carelessly, made sure that the towel around his waist was secured and then opened the door to return to his bunk and get dressed.

As he stepped outside, he almost ran into Agent May, who stopped in surprise, her eyes glancing past Ward and into the bathroom behind him.

“Do I want to know what happened to the mirror?” she asked, raising an eyebrow in mild curiosity.

“It broke,” Ward simply replied as he walked past her and towards his bunk, not really in the mood to explain himself.

Not that Agent May actually needed an explanation, as she could see all too clearly what her team mate was going through, and she wasn’t going to pry into it. Some wounds were better to be left alone anyway...

 

* * *

“What are you doing?” Agent Simmons asked as she stepped into the command centre, where Agent Haze was working by herself at the moment. They were still a few hours away from reaching their destination.

The scientist was doing her best to appear as professional as possible, but the red hue of her nose and her slightly puffy eyes were making it hard to hide the fact that she had been crying earlier. Jemma glanced up at the documents displayed on the main screen for a moment, but hesitated as she skimmed over them and realised what they were.

“Is that the file on Doctor O’Leary again?” she asked, slightly puzzled. She had expected Agent Haze to still be looking into Curtis Tyler or his sister, considering that they were headed to Toronto to pick her up now.

“Yes. After all the times I’ve studied it in the past, I know Tyler’s file inside out by now and to be honest, it makes my skin crawl just looking at it. I thought that maybe, now that I know about Tyler’s involvement in all of this, I might find something else in O’Leary’s file, some kind of connection. But so far nothing.”

Jemma watched the screen for a few moments as Agent Haze jumped between files and documents, trying to come up with any useful information on the still missing scientist.

“You know, I always love watching Skye work on these things. Of course, she mostly works somewhere quiet, like in her bunk or the car, but when she does it here, it’s fascinating to watch, really. She always finds all these connections so easily, it’s like magic.” The scientist broke off abruptly, chastising herself inwardly for even saying something like that. It clearly had to be a sign of her ruffled nerves that she was spouting such nonsense to begin with and so she hurried to correct herself.

“Not that magic would actually exist, of course. It’s all science or in this case probably more like creative thinking, I guess.” Jemma fell silent for a moment, as the mere memory of Skye working at her laptop suddenly brought the tears she had been fighting back to her eyes. She pretended to still be looking at the screen intently in order to keep her back turned to Agent Haze, hoping that the other woman wouldn’t notice as she started sniffling. But her efforts were to no avail.

Jemma still had her back to Haze and was staring up at the screen without really seeing it as a hand with a handkerchief suddenly appeared at her side. She took the tissue, grateful for the gesture, and proceeded to blow her nose noisily.

“How are you holding up?” the taller agent asked gently, concern colouring her voice.

“I’m okay, thank you,” Simmons replied without hesitating, and even though she didn’t seem convinced, Agent Haze didn’t question her reply.

Jemma paused for a moment before she continued, not really sure if she actually wanted to hear the answer to her next question. In the end, however, she simply had to know.

“That man, Tyler, is he really as bad as you said? Do you really think he is... he is torturing Skye?” She looked up at Agent Haze almost pleadingly, willing her to say that she had been exaggerating, that Skye would be fine and that she didn’t need to worry, but as much as the taller agent probably would have liked to, she couldn’t do her that favour.

“I’m afraid that’s the way he usually works, yes.”

“But what if she doesn’t talk?” Jemma’s eyes widened as a thought suddenly hit her. “And what if she does? Is he going to kill her once she gives him the information he wants?” The expression on the young woman’s face was panicked now as the concern for her friend grew with every passing moment.

Agent Haze looked back at the scientist sympathetically, a soft sigh escaping her lips.

“As far as I can tell, Tyler’s victims, they always talk, no matter how long it takes. But either way, I don’t believe he is going to kill Skye. That’s not his M.O.”

“Good,” Jemma replied, nodding her head, a tense smile on her face. “Then I just hope that Skye cooperated for once and told him what he wanted to hear, even though I know she can be stubborn sometimes.” The young woman took a deep breath, feeling a little more hopeful than before, and wiped the remaining tears from her eyes.

“I’m sure now that we have a lead, we’re going to find Skye really soon, but I can’t just sit around the lab and do nothing; especially not with Fitz there when he’s... when he’s like _that_.

Of course, we all know now that he was right about Skye from the beginning, that he was the only one of us who didn’t doubt her for a single moment, but now he keeps getting really worked up about that. I don’t know how many times he’s asked me why nobody would listen to him and after a while it... it just gets kind of unsettling.”

The scientist had wrapped her arms around herself without noticing, in an effort to shield herself from the memory, but now she straightened up and looked at the screen once more, determined to find some occupation to get her through all of this.

“Do you think that maybe I could help you with this?” she asked, nodding at the file on display.

Agent Haze hesitated a second, knowing that a degree in biochemistry didn’t exactly qualify for this kind of intelligence work, but after seeing the lost expression on Simmons’ face, she finally nodded.

“Sure, why not? It’s not like I’m making much progress anyway and I guess two pairs of eyes are better than one.”

Jemma smiled gratefully as she stepped next to Haze at the computer table and the taller agent started explaining what sort of data she was focusing on at the moment.

“I’ve already tried to get any information on Dr. O’Leary’s work for the Maher Foundation, but without anyone on the inside that’s pretty much a lost cause. Why don’t you have another look at what else he did in Denver during his time there; maybe something will stand out to you,” Agent Haze suggested, opening the relevant files for Simmons, who nodded in reply.

“Sure, but I don’t really know what I’m looking for,” the scientist pointed out uncertainly.

“Anything that looks interesting or remarkable, really. I’ve been over all these files a dozen times already, a fresh set of eyes is exactly what I might have been missing all this time,” the agent explained while pushing a few loose strands of hair back behind her ears absentmindedly. The knot she was keeping her long hair in had clearly taken its toll from the long hours Agent Haze had already been on her feet, but she kept ignoring the messy state of it as she continued to work on her own set of files

 “O’Leary’s a real creature of habit, isn’t he?” Agent Simmons remarked after a while, without taking her eyes off the credit card transactions she was studying at the moment.

“I guess so, yes. But what exactly do you mean?” Haze asked, looking over.

“Well, he didn’t buy a lot of things, and he mostly liked to go to the same places. A couple of shops, one book store, two different theatres and always the same restaurant, every Sunday for the past five years. Maybe he was meeting his Centipede contacts there,” Jemma suggested with growing excitement as she glanced over at her colleague.

Haze smiled as the idea struck her as something the scientist might have picked up from a spy movie, but as she really was glad for a fresh set of eyes to look at the files, she wasn’t so quick to discard it completely, either.

“Well, it is one of the only things he spent money on regularly, so I guess it might be worth a look. Maybe he knows the owner or some of the other regular customers. I’ll get some background info on the restaurant.”

Agent Simmons watched as Agent Haze’s fingers flew over the keyboard, pulling up everything about the restaurant’s owner, including financial records, phone bills and everything else she could find. She studied the files in silence for a few minutes, until her brow started to furrow in confusion.

“That can’t be,” Agent Haze muttered under her breath as she stared down at the lists of numbers in front of her.

“What is it?” Simmons asked curiously, hoping that her input had actually gotten them somewhere.

“According to these financials, the entire restaurant was closed for half a year in 2010 for renovations. But O’Leary’s credit card records for that time clearly say that he was still eating there once a week.”

“But how can that be?” Jemma asked, completely puzzled.

“It can’t, unless... damn it!” Realisation dawned on Agent Haze’s face as she started to put the pieces together.

“Okay, now you really have to tell me what’s going on here. Do you know what happened to Dr. O’Leary?”

“Maybe. At least I have a theory. I need twenty minutes and if you could get me a headset, I think I need to make a few calls.”

**To be continued...**


	17. In Charge

When Jack left Skye’s cell, making sure to lock the door behind him, he was more than satisfied with the progress he had made in the interrogation. The young woman had given up pretty much everything she knew about SHIELD, and even though most of it wasn’t even level one classified, it still proofed her willingness to cooperate. Skye wasn’t officially a SHIELD agent yet, they had known that going in, and so the information she could possibly provide wasn’t actually of much value.

However, the two facts that Skye was one of the best hackers in the world _and_ worked for the SHIELD unit that was trying to track down Centipede had made her the perfect target for this mission regardless.

Right now, though, Jack had other things on his mind than their agenda to join forces with Centipede. Due to the little charade he had played out for Skye earlier, to let her believe he was dead, he had not been able to monitor her entire escape attempt over the cameras in the complex and for some reason his men had failed to inform him about the hacker finding her ex-boyfriend’s severed hand. A hand that should not have been there in the first place.

As he entered the compound’s break room, the same one Skye had hidden in during her failed escape, it was now occupied by a few of the men he was working with, whose guard shift had ended. As soon as they became aware of him, his expression grim, they fell silent immediately, unsure of what to expect.

One of them, a dark haired young man, gulped noticeably as he saw Jack heading towards him. Before he could react in any way, however, he was suddenly punched in the face, his left arm twisted behind his back and his head slammed down on the table with a resounding bang. The man was visible dazed from the impact, but Jack still made sure to keep him pinned down with his elbow, while he forced the other’s right hand down on the table next to his face. A moment later he had pulled out his knife and was pressing it down on the restrained man’s wrist.

“Evan, after I cut off Miles Lydon’s hand, what did I tell you to do with it?” he asked, his voice cold and threatening. The other guards had sprung up from their seats by now, but none of them dared to intervene and only looked on as their comrade was struggling to regain his composure.

“You told me to... to get rid of it,” Evan answered haltingly, swallowing heavily once more. His eyes were fixed on his right wrist and the blade of Jack’s knife on top of it, as beads of sweat began to form on his forehead in light of what might be about to happen.

“Right.” Jack nodded in agreement, his vice-like grip on the other man tightening even more. “And what do you think did I _not_ mean by that?”

“That... That I could keep it as a freaky souvenir,” Evan answered, cringing in hindsight at his own idea.

“A souvenir,” Jack sighed exasperatedly as he intensified the pressure on the knife, drawing blood.

“That little _souvenir_ you decided to keep could have cost me the entire progress I had already made with our prisoner, do you even realise that? There is a great deal hanging on this mission and you almost went and fucked it all up.” He leaned down a little further, thereby putting even more pressure on the knife and causing the guard to hiss in pain.

“When I give you an order, you follow it, is that clear?” Jack asked in a sharp tone, not about to tolerate any objection.

“Yes. Yes, sir!” the man answered without hesitation, almost petrified with the fear of losing his hand.

“Good, or the next time I’ll be keeping _your_ hand as a souvenir.” Jack backed off of the man now and quickly wiped the knife on his trousers before putting it back in its sheath.

“Now, you’ll get rid of it immediately,” he ordered, pointing at the fridge, “and don’t even think of pulling anything like that ever again.”

“No, sir, of course not,” the man answered quickly, already moving towards the fridge to remove the jar with the hand from it. The remaining guards in the room were effectively stunned into silence by what had just played out in front of them, and none of them said another word until Jack left the room, still shaking his head in anger.

 

* * *

 

Skye had been alone in her cell for about an hour now, but this time she wasn’t panicking or even afraid any longer. She was simply waiting. Waiting for Jack to come back with more questions, more ways for her to betray SHIELD and her friends.

She was feeling sick, when she thought about what she was doing and how easy it had become for her to give her kidnapper what he wanted. She had been so sure of herself in the beginning, so stubborn and convinced she wouldn’t cave, but now that just seemed naive to her.

Once she had started to fully cooperate and her betrayals kept piling up every time she opened her mouth, Skye felt that giving away what she knew had actually become a lot easier. Her only consolation was that as merely a consultant, she barely knew anything of real value to SHIELD in the first place. If she had known something, she probably would have given that up by now as well.

Despite her immense guilt, however, the young woman was actually feeling better than the last time she had been alone in her cell. As a reward for her cooperation, Jack had not only given her more water and something to eat, but at Skye’s request he had also agreed to leave the light on. She still felt ashamed for even asking him for it, but she couldn’t take the constant darkness anymore. Not with all these memories and images that kept haunting her and that became ten times worse in the dark.

The sound of the key turning in the lock suddenly caught the young woman’s attention and her eyes fixed on the door, her heartbeat speeding up with anxiety as Jack entered. He had a piece of cloth in his hand that Skye recognised after a moment as some kind of bag, not unlike the one Ward had put over her head the first time she had set foot on the Bus.

“What’s that for?” she asked, eying the item warily.

“I have a job for you,” was all the answer Jack gave her, before he pulled the bag over Skye’s head, thus rendering her completely blind. Then he proceeded to cut off her bindings and pulled her to her feet in one swift motion. The hacker stumbled slightly, but Jack kept her upright, almost dragging her along as they made their way outside.

They walked only for about a minute or two until Skye heard a door being opened in front of them. A second later she found herself being pushed into another chair, but without being tied down this time. Instead, the bag was pulled off her head again, and when she had adjusted to the bright lights, she noticed the keyboard and monitor standing directly in front of her.

“You are going to hack into SHIELD’s computers and delete a few of their files for us,” Jack explained – or rather ordered – as he looked down at Skye. He was standing right beside the monitor, his expression tense.

“What kind of files?” the young hacker asked after a moment of hesitation, not wanting to do anything that would put her team or other people in danger, despite her promise to cooperate with Jack.

“A few old acquaintances of yours, you’re going to help them disappear off SHIELD’s radar. Don’t worry, it’s nothing that needs to make you uncomfortable,” he assured her as he slowly started walking around her.

Skye took a deep breath as she focused at the monitor in front of her, not even surprised anymore that Jack had guessed the reason for her reluctance so easily. Her fingers were already itching to get to work on the keyboard, just to do something that was actually fun for her and made her feel like herself and not a helpless victim, even if only for a moment. Plus, she had made people disappear before, although she was sure that whoever Jack wanted her to help wasn’t her usual clientele. But at least she wouldn’t be hurting anyone or putting people in danger, therefore she couldn’t see a reason not to follow her kidnapper’s instructions, like she had agreed she would.

Feeling Jack’s intimidating presence next to her, Skye finally sighed and nodded her head.

“Alright, who do you need me to make disappear?”

“Centipede,” he answered in a soft tone, but to Skye that reply felt like she had just been hit in the stomach.

“So… you’re with Centipede?” It was half statement, half question, as the hacker didn’t really know what to make of the news that the mysterious organisation was involved in all of this. However, Jack shook his head in reply, only confusing Skye further.

“Not exactly, no. Let’s just say we want to do them a favour. Now you’re going to find everything SHIELD has on Centipede, every file, every note, and you’re going to delete all of it.”

“Everything SHIELD has on Centipede and on a group called Talos. You’re going to make _us_ disappear, too.”

Skye’s head shot up at the sound of an unfamiliar voice and her gaze was met by an extremely tall, well muscled man, whose presence alone sent a sudden icy shiver down her spine.

He must have been standing behind her so far, as she hadn’t noticed him before, but now he stepped into her field of vision, looking down at the young woman grimly. She wasn’t exactly sure what it was, but something about him told her that he wasn’t taking orders from Jack, but that it was the other way around. He was the boss here and maybe even the one who had ordered her kidnapping in the first place.

“Let me guess, you’re the big guy in charge here. At least you’re a big guy alright,” she remarked, forcing herself to grin. It was the first, albeit weak, attempt at humour she had made in what felt like forever, but the faint smile Skye had managed quickly died on her lips. Even though she could swear that she had seen the shadow of a grin pass over Jack’s features, his boss remained utterly unfazed as he ignored her remark and addressed his employee instead.

“Make sure she does what she’s told. She might be worth less damaged, but nothing at all if she’s uncooperative.”

Skye swallowed hard and her eyes widened in fear as the open threat reminded her all too clearly that even though she hadn’t been tortured ever since she had started to comply with Jack’s orders, the danger was still constantly looming over her. Every decision she made, every wrong answer she gave could result in more pain for her.

“Oh, Skye and I have come to an understanding. Don’t worry, she’ll get the job done.”

“I hope so,” Jack’s boss answered, before taking a step back and leaving him to interact with Skye alone.

The hacker wasn’t entirely sure if the other man had left the room or not, but it didn’t really make a difference anyway, as Jack suddenly demanded her entire attention again. He leaned down to the young woman so that they were on eye level.

“You’ve hacked into SHIELD before, so I’m not going to have to tell you how this works. You get into their system, find the files, delete them and that’s it. And don’t worry about anyone being able to trace the signal back to us. It is so well hidden and encrypted that not even SHIELD’s computer guys will be able to follow it. Now get on with it,” he ordered, tilting his head in the direction of the monitor.

Just as Skye was about to reach out for the keyboard, though, Jack suddenly rammed the tip of his knife into the table right in front of her fingers, leaving a deep cut in the wooden surface and causing the young woman to flinch back in shock.

“Just one more thing. Right now there are two of our men hooked up to this computer, watching everything you do, every keystroke you make. If you do _anything_ to sabotage this or leave some kind of message for SHIELD, you _will_ regret it.”

Skye nodded curtly in understanding and merely uttered a short “got it”, not trusting herself enough to say anything more, but that seemed to be good enough for Jack. He pulled the knife out of the table and put it back in its sheath, allowing Skye to get started.

The hacker took a deep breath, rolled her shoulders, trying to get rid of her stiffness, and moved a little closer to the monitor with her chair before she finally began to type on the keyboard. She felt somewhat uncomfortable at first, with Jack watching her and the knowledge that she was helping Centipede weighing down on her, but the longer she worked, the more like herself she began to feel.

Hacking into SHIELD wasn’t anything new to Skye, but it wasn’t long before it became apparent to her just how vastly superior this system was compared to her own laptop back in her van. Just like everything regarding computer science had always come naturally to her, her fingers began to fly across the keyboard, typing in commands and lines of code at an incredible speed, the injury to her hand pretty much forgotten.

SHIELD had one of the best systems in the world, but Skye had always been able to find loopholes in it. Now that she was also armed with firsthand experience working with it and a very good set-up at her own disposal, breaking into SHIELD’s servers was actually a lot easier than she had expected.

She kept her eyes fixed on the monitor the entire time, trying to block out where she was, who she was doing this for and just pretend that she was back with the Rising Tide, hacking into Big Brother. She could tell that Jack was still watching her carefully, making sure she didn’t try to pull any tricks, but despite that, the urge to tip SHIELD off to what was happening was still there.

In the end, however, she didn’t dare to act on that impulse. Knowing that Jack had two of his own technicians monitoring her work, there wasn’t really anything she could do that wouldn’t be detected immediately and if he was telling the truth about the signal being untraceable, it wouldn’t do her much good in the first place.

So Skye did as she had been told. She succeeded to get into SHIELD’s database and run a search for everything they had on Centipede and this Talos group and, utilising a part of their own antivirus software, she managed to flag these files as corrupted data, resulting in the system deleting them on its own.

As soon as she had hit the final command, a few open windows suddenly disappeared from her screen and were instead exchanged with the notice ‘data not found’.

Skye slummed back in her seat and exhaled heavily, the brief rush of success immediately followed by the realisation that she had just helped her enemies, SHIELD’s enemies, and she couldn’t help but wonder if this was really such a victimless crime as she had convinced herself earlier. The things Centipede had done so far... and she was helping them get away with all that.

“It’s done,” she announced, her voice sounding strangely detached as she was trying not to let the situation get to her.

“Good work,” Jack remarked and actually slapped her on the shoulder, making Skye flinch. It wasn’t so much the physical contact that set her on edge, but rather the fact that the man, who had tormented her all this time, was complimenting her now. She didn’t get to dwell on that thought very long, though, as someone else spoke up unexpectedly.

“Not yet.” The voice of the tall man from before cut through the air, startling Skye. She hadn’t even realised that he was still in the room, as he hadn’t spoken up once ever since his earlier threat towards her and had stayed completely out of her line of sight.

It seemed, however, that she wasn’t the only one, who was surprised by his sudden interference. Jack, who had obviously been well aware of his boss’ continued presence, looked at him with furrowed brows, his expression wary.

“She finished the job we gave her. What else do you want her to do?”

“If we want to win the Clairvoyant’s favour, getting SHIELD off his trail is a good start, but we can do better. I want her to dig something up that would be useful in actually fighting them. Names of their agents, dates and locations for their assignments, something like that. I’ve heard rumours they even have an index of people with powers; that could come in handy, too.”

“ _What_?”

The shocked question was going through Skye’s mind, but it was actually Jack, who had voiced it out loud. 

“That is not what we had agreed on,” he argued, and as crazy as she knew this was, Skye actually found herself looking at him for support in this.

She had agreed to delete a few files, information that SHIELD had managed to track down once, and could surely find again, but she wasn’t going to help her kidnappers get their hands on any intel like that. There was no telling for how many deaths that would make her responsible if she did.

However, it didn’t seem as if his boss was reacting too kindly to Jack’s objection.

“We don’t need to agree on anything. I am running this organisation and if you have a problem with that, you know where the door is. Otherwise I suggest that you do what I tell you to. And right now I’m telling you to make her obey my orders or I’m going to do it myself.”

They stared at each other for a moment as Skye somehow had the vague notion that that option would be even worse than what had been done to her so far, until Jack finally backed down, shrugging.

“Fine, you’re the boss. Skye, you heard him. You’re going to dig a little deeper into SHIELD’s secrets for us.”

The hacker, however, wasn’t going to give in that easily.

“No, I can’t do that,” she protested, but Jack shook his head, not accepting that answer. He stepped behind Skye and laid both his hands on her shoulders, causing the young woman to tense at the touch. Even though she couldn’t see it, she felt how he was fixating her with an intense glare.

“Oh, I know you can. This is one of the best systems money can buy and you have done similar things from your van. You _can_ do it and you _will_!”

Skye’s breath caught in her throat as she looked from the blurred image of Jack that was reflecting on the monitor in front of her, to the man who was really giving the orders and found him looking down at her with something that she could only describe as hatred. She wasn’t sure what it was directed at – her, her refusal to obey his order or at SHIELD in general – but somehow she knew that this man posed an even greater threat than Jack did.

Which was why Skye was almost surprised at how easily she came up with a decision. Because, even though she wanted to get out of here alive, there was no way that she would help someone like this to harm SHIELD and her team.

“No,” she answered solemnly, not directing it at Jack, but at his boss, whose expression changed from hateful to furious in an instant as he advanced on her menacingly. At the same moment, Jack’s grip on Skye’s shoulders tightened, startling her.

“I really wish you hadn’t said that,” he sighed, clearly dissatisfied with how this entire situation had developed.

The young woman flinched, afraid of what was going to happen to her now. For a brief moment, Jack let go of her, but just as she was about to turn around to him, his arm suddenly wrapped around her throat and he started to apply pressure. Skye gasped as her air supply was cut off. She tried pulling at Jack’s arm, but couldn’t get him to loosen his grip.

“Jack...,” she croaked out as her head started to feel woozy, her fingers barely having any strength left in them as they clawed at her attacker.

“Shh...,” he whispered into her ear soothingly, “it’s going to be over soon.”

As Skye’s vision became increasingly blurred and she found herself unable to form any coherent thoughts, the last thing she wondered vaguely was if this would make up for everything she had done, should her team ever find out the truth about what had happened to her. If the fact that she had died refusing to put any SHIELD agents in danger could balance out her countless betrayals ever since Jack had kidnapped her.

She just hoped it would as the world finally faded to black and she lost consciousness.

**To be continued...**


	18. You Don’t Want To Go Down This Road

It was completely silent in Coulson's office, except for the very low hum of the engines that could be heard throughout the entire plane. The agent was sitting at his desk, but even though his eyes were fixed on the large screen at the opposite wall, he wasn’t really taking in any of the information on it. Back in the command centre he had been driven by the desire to find Skye, to make up for the time they had already wasted and follow the lead they now finally had, but now that he could do nothing but wait until they had reached their next destination, he felt paralysed.

Of course he would only allow himself a few moments to dwell on this. After that he would learn everything there was to know about the man, who had kidnapped Skye, Curtis Tyler, whose picture was already up on the computer screen, staring at Coulson. Right now, though, the agent wasn’t ready to focus on anything but the leaden feeling that seemed to be crushing down on his chest, weighing him down.

He had failed Skye. He knew that he hadn’t been the only one on the team, who had doubted their resident hacker, but in the end it had been his call to make. And he had made the wrong one. He firmly believed in giving people second chances and in looking out for your own, but while he hadn’t abandoned the search for Skye completely, he had decided to focus on the hunt for Centipede instead, condemning the young woman to an unknown fate.

Only that it wasn’t unknown any longer.

He had condemned her to pain and suffering, to torture, abuse and who knew what else. Coulson clenched his fist and took a calming breath, feeling sick just thinking about what was happening to Skye. He had been with SHIELD long enough to know what torture could do to someone, what damage it could cause in addition to the physical wounds. He had seen trained agents suffering from mental scars that had left them unable to do their jobs and barely able to lead a normal life, let alone a happy one. Although she and Ward had been making progress with her lessons, he also knew that Skye was far from being trained.

But, as Coulson reminded himself, he also knew that she was tough. She was a survivor, who had been looking out for herself her entire life and who, despite her innocent appearance, had more than a few aces up her sleeves.

Coulson took one more deep breath and made a conscious effort to unclench his fist, spreading the fingers out on the cool surface of the table. He had made a terrible mistake and there would be a time and a place to ask for forgiveness for that, but for now he needed to focus and find out everything he could about who they were up against. Maybe there was a chance that the damage that had undoubtedly been done to Skye was still reversible, and nothing would stop him from taking it.

* * *

Agent Ward was sitting in one of the chairs by the window in the lounge area of the Bus, a tablet in hand, studying Haze’s file on Tyler as he trying to get to know his enemy. He glanced up, however, as Fitz suddenly hurried past him, fidgeting with his hands and generally appearing even more nervous than usual. They hadn’t talked since their earlier argument, and even though he wasn’t particularly looking forward to it, either, he couldn’t help but notice how shaken the scientist obviously still was by the confirmation that Skye really had been kidnapped. Because even though he had believed it all this time, knowing the truth now for sure was still something different.

Ward looked over to the command centre, where Fitz was headed now, and saw Haze and Simmons still working on whatever data they were looking into at the moment. This had been going on for a while now and some time ago, he had noticed Agent Haze walking around with a headset, making several calls, but he had no idea what that had been about. Maybe the computer expert had found another lead she was looking into right now, but he knew from experience that it wasn’t exactly helpful if he stood behind someone’s back, looking over their shoulder when they were busy with research, so he had remained where he was, certain that Haze would tell the team immediately if she had found something.

As he now watched Fitz walk into the command centre, he could see him arguing with Simmons, but their voices were too muffled over the distance to understand anything. Intrigued, the agent got up from his seat to join his team mates, intend on not missing one more step of this rescue mission.

“No, Fitz, I’m not avoiding you, it’s just that Rebecca and I have been really busy,” Simmons defended herself against an accusation Ward had missed, causing the agent to raise an eyebrow in slight surprise as she referred to Agent Haze by her first name. He leaned against the door frame of the room and took in the situation in front of him for a moment.

Fitz, who now doubted Jemma’s claim by arguing that she wasn’t exactly a data analyst, still made a rattled impression, while Simmons seemed a little paler than usual and was left speechless by Leo’s remark, clearly hurt.

“You’ve found something, haven’t you?” Ward suddenly asked, following his instincts without hesitating. “And it isn’t good,” he added, his brow furrowed in concern.

Jemma glanced at Agent Haze nervously, as if she was afraid that her behaviour had given something away.

“What?” Fitz asked, completely dumbfounded, looking from one agent to the other. “What did you find?” As nobody answered, he added a stern “ _Jemma_ ”, causing the scientist to avert her eyes to the ground.

“I really don’t think we should be discussing this without Agent Coulson,” she replied evasively, but Ward was having none of that and looked at both women, his anger rising.

“If you have something that can help us find Skye, you have to tell us right now. I don’t care if the information is classified or not, we all have a right to know it if it’s related to this mission.”

“I’m afraid what we found isn’t going to be of much help,” Agent Haze started, her voice sounding surprisingly sad and defeated. She looked at Ward apologetically, but before she could explain any further, Jemma interrupted her.

“Dr. O’Leary is dead,” she blurted out abruptly, startling the rest of the team and prompting a sigh from Haze, as her effort of breaking the news slowly had been cut short.

“ _What_?” Ward asked this time, caught completely off guard by this new information. “When did that happen? And how?” he demanded to know, the smallest trace of fear creeping into his voice.

If O’Leary was dead, what did that mean for Skye?

There had always been two probable explanations for the scientist’s disappearance. Either he had decided to go into hiding instead of meeting with the team, fearing the repercussions of his betrayal of Centipede or, probably even more likely, the organisation had already caught up with him.

As they didn’t know why Skye had been taken yet, Ward couldn’t be sure if O’Leary’s death would have any consequences for her, but as his judgement hadn’t been particularly sound as of late, he didn’t even dare to venture a guess.

“That’s a little complicated,” Haze replied vaguely, “but as Jemma said before, we really shouldn’t discuss this without the rest of your team. I think this is something you all need to hear.”

 

* * *

 

As Agent Coulson entered the command centre, closely followed by Agent May, he immediately picked up on the tense atmosphere.

“Going by the look on your faces, I’m guessing this isn’t going to be good, right?” he asked, not even sounding surprised in the slightest. Nothing about this entire mission had worked out in their favour so far, so why should now be any different?

“O’Leary is dead,” Ward filled his C.O. in on what he knew so far, prompting the same startled reaction he and Fitz had shown earlier.

“What? What happened?” After a brief moment he added, “Where was his body found? I know it’s probably a long shot, but maybe the location can give us a hint as to where Skye is being held.”

Jemma shot an uneasy glance at Agent Haze, proving how uncomfortable she was with the situation.

“It wasn’t found,” the computer expert hurried to explain, but so far she was only met with confused expressions. “His body is in the same location where it has been for the past five years. A cemetery right outside of D.C.” There was a brief moment of silence as everyone tried to process this bit of information, until Coulson spoke again, his eyes narrowed and his tone disbelieving.

“Are you telling me that Dr. O’Leary has been dead all this time?”

“I’m afraid so, yes,” Haze replied honestly.

“ _How_? He contacted us, there is a bunch of records proving that he’s been living in Denver during these years, so how could he have been dead?”

“Whoever contacted SHIELD was probably using a computer software, mimicking O’Leary’s voice, and the records, they’re fake, all of them.” The agent handed a sheet of paper to Coulson before continuing. “That’s a copy of O’Leary’s death certificate. He died of cancer in a hospice outside of D.C. in ‘08, but everything about that has been erased from the system and was replaced by solid evidence that he spend the last few years working in Denver instead.”

“Why didn’t we find this sooner,” Coulson asked, both angry and frustrated as he waved the paper in his hand. “You’ve been over this data countless times already, and so has Skye. How did you both miss something like _this_?” Deep down Coulson knew that he was probably being too harsh on the computer expert, but right now he didn’t care.

All he knew was that they had been chasing their own tail for days now, and he hadn’t just made the wrong choice by prioritising the search for Dr. O’Leary over tracking down Skye, but that he had literally abandoned their rookie for _nothing_.

“There was no reason to assume the records were fake. As I said, everything in the system proved that Dr. O’Leary moved from D.C. to Denver to work for the Maher Foundation. I was monitoring Skye as she searched for the data and everything seemed plausible to me. Even when I checked it again after I came to your team, I still couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.”

Coulson had calmed down a little and looked at the agent for a moment before questioning her further.

“Alright, but then how did you find this now? How did you know that the evidence was faked?”

Haze’s eyes wandered over to Simmons and this point and her expression brightened visibly as she answered Colson’s question. “Actually it was Jemma here, who had the crucial idea,” she explained, a small smile appearing on her lips as she noticed that the scientist seemed rather embarrassed by the praise. “She had me take a closer look at a restaurant where O’Leary ate regularly, and as it turned out, we were lucky and whoever forged his records really messed up with this. The place was closed for months in 2010 during renovations, but according to O’Leary’s credit card records, he still ate there every week. That proved that the records must have been forged, and knowing that, I started to consider the possibility that some of the others could have been, too. Maybe even all of them.”

Haze could still hardly believe that she had missed such a crucial detail during her investigation, and was well aware that discovering it earlier would have saved them – and Skye – a lot of time, but for now she tried to concentrate on the fact that they had finally found out the truth, hoping that it wasn’t too late. As she continued her explanation, her tone was entirely professional, not betraying any of her thoughts.

“That’s when I started looking back at O’Leary’s last verified residence. D.C. The lab he used to work at there was destroyed in a fire, so a lot of his files were lost, and he didn’t really have any friends, but I managed to track down one of his old neighbours, and she told me that he had been very sick when he moved out. Working from there, I had two night nurses, one at the hospital and one at the hospice, go through their hard copy files until they finally found something on O’Leary. That,” she finished, pointing at the death certificate.

“So, the lead on the Maher foundation...” Agent May began, even though she already knew the answer.

“Fake. They’re clean, as far as I can tell, and I don’t believe they have anything to do with Centipede at all,” Agent Haze replied, shaking her head.

“Which means we’ve been played,” Ward summarised, his voice filled with both disbelief and anger. “This entire operation was nothing but a setup from the very beginning, a trap to get to Skye, and we walked right into it.” It took all of his self-control for him not to punch the glass wall surrounding the command centre, but by the looks of it, he wasn’t the only one who had to rein in their temper right now.

Ward had never seen Agent May look this angry. Although he knew all about her fighting skills and reputation, of course, he couldn’t remember ever seeing her in a state that would have earned her the name ‘The Cavalry’ in the first place. Until now.

However, the look on Coulson’s face was perhaps even more frightening. The usually so calm and generally _nice_ man seemed about ready to commit coldblooded murder, his expression hard and relentless. They had all been fooled, but he was their leader and every decision he had made since all of this had started had to be coming back to him now, haunting him.

While Agent Haze was looking mostly frustrated and guilty, that she hadn’t found the fake data sooner, Fitzsimmons were looking strangely out of place, not really knowing what to do with themselves, or how to react to this revelation. Simmons had already known for a little while, of course, but that didn’t mean that she had processed it any better than the others.

* * *

After they had learned the truth about Dr. O’Leary, it had become extremely quiet on the Bus. May had retreated back to her cockpit, Coulson to his office, Fitzsimmons down to the lab, while Ward and Haze had both found a spot in the lounge area, the former studying Tyler’s file once more, the latter having fallen asleep after only a few minutes on the couch.

Ward couldn’t blame her, as he knew that the agent had been on her feet for over thirty-six hours by now, and to be honest he was almost envious as there was no way that he would have been able to relax enough to sleep even if he had wanted to.

His mind kept reeling and he barely saw the words in front of him anymore as the reality of what was happening kept crashing down on him.

All of this had been planned. After he had found out that Skye really had been kidnapped, he had sort of assumed that Curtis Tyler, or whoever he was working for, had merely seized the opportunity to get their hands on a SHIELD consultant, or whatever their reason had been for abducting Skye. The reality, however, was so much worse.

To know that his rookie had been the target from the beginning made him feel even more guilty about not realising that there had been something wrong about her disappearance in the first place. He should have been there for Skye, he should have been right next to her to protect her, and yet he had been played so easily. He knew that he had to find her, that he had to do everything he could to save her, but if he was being honest with himself, he still didn’t know how he was even going to face her once he did.

The next two hours felt like the longest of his life, until Agent May’s voice finally came over the comm system, informing everyone that they were going to land in Toronto soon.

Ward sighed in relief and went over to wake Agent Haze, before going down to the cargo hold to gear up.

* * *

As this was supposed to be a quick capture and retreat mission, the agents Ward and May were going in alone, their comms hooked up to the Bus, in case they needed help, of course.

They had agreed that Ward would try and approach their target, Tyler’s sister, Olivia Campbell, as a potential customer, making it easier to get close to her, while May would cover the back of the building to prevent her from escaping. They parked the car just out of sight of the address they had been given, and Ward gave his partner a head start to get into position, before making his way towards Campbell’s house himself.

It was the second one in a line of rundown, almost abandoned looking brick row houses, that weren’t exactly a rare phenomenon in this area of the city, but were still not what he had expected. Apparently the forger preferred a low profile and anonymity to a decent living standard, if she had decided to move into a place like this.

When Ward reached the front of the building, everything looked entirely ordinary, and only the number next to the door proofed that he was in the right place. He pressed the door bell once and it took only a few seconds until the sound of a buzzer indicated that he could enter. After he had opened the front door of the building, however, he found himself in a short and very narrow hallway, with a second, much more solid looking door at its end. Above that door a camera had been installed, which looked even more out of place than the door itself.

Suddenly he heard a female voice coming from a speaker somewhere.

“I don’t know you. What do you want?”

Ward glanced over his shoulder for the second time since he had entered, which, added to the anxious look on his face, enforced the impression that he was extremely nervous.

“Listen, a friend of a friend sent me here. I need new papers, clean ones. Papers that will get me as far away from here as possible.”

“I don’t give a shit about who sent you, I _live_ here, alright? I have a shop where I do business. Come by there tomorrow and we’ll talk,” the voice replied, clearly annoyed, but Ward wasn’t ready to give up yet. He would get through this door one way or another, but he wanted to give the young woman one more chance to open it for him and so he cranked the urgency in his voice up a level.

“Please, I can’t wait until tomorrow. I’ve got money, alright?” He waved a bundle of cash in front of the camera, which Coulson had given him for exactly this purpose, but apparently he had revealed more than he had wanted to when he had pulled it out of his jacket.

“Yeah, and you’re packing,” the voice came again, less than friendly this time. “Show me that gun or get the hell out of here.”

Ward sighed, but complied with her request, knowing that he wasn’t going to get inside the easy way after all.

“You mean this?” he asked, holding up the night-night pistol. “This isn’t even a real gun to be honest. A friend of mine even keeps giving it this silly nickname, so it’s really nothing to be afraid of.”

There was silence for a moment, and Ward was already planning his next step, when the voice came over the speaker one more time, sounding a little uneven.

“Alright, I’ll let you in. Just... Just give me a second.” Agent Ward sighed and grimaced slightly, as he had no doubt what this reaction meant. He had been made.

Just as he was about to focus on getting through this door, however, there was suddenly the sound of a loud explosion coming from inside, causing him to duck instinctively. He had clearly not been the target of whatever had just happened, though, as the only effects of the blast out here had been a slight shaking of the walls and some dust raining down on the specialist. He was still looking at the door in confusion, when May’s voice came over his earpiece.

“What just happened in there?” she asked, surprise and even a little worry colouring her voice.

“Campbell definitely made me, but that attack wasn’t aimed at me. Give me a second.”

He pulled out his second gun, a real one this time, and shot at the lock twice before kicking in the door.

As soon as Ward went inside, a cloud of smoke and ash billowed towards him and he had to raise his arm to cover his nose and mouth with his sleeve. The entire room, which seemed to have served as both a living room and a home office, was a mess, after an explosion had obviously taken place, centred at what had once been a desk standing in the middle of the room. Now all that remained of it were a few charred pieces of wood and the smouldering remains of what must have been a high-end computer only moments ago.

Ward quickly checked the entire room and all the adjoining ones, but there was no sign of the forger.

“Damn it,” he sighed, before opening his comm channel to contact May again.

“Looks like she just threw a grenade at her own computer to make sure we wouldn’t get any of her files. But there’s no sign of her here. Are you sure she didn’t get out the back?”

“Negative. She didn’t come through here.”

“Alright, keep your eyes open outside, I’ll check the rest of the house,” he told his partner as he made his way up the small staircase to the second floor. However, his target wasn’t there either, and so he finally made his way down to the cellar, to see if Olivia had found a way out through there.

As soon as Ward entered the basement, he stopped, cursing under his breath. He was standing in a long hallway, not unlike a tunnel, that was obviously going way beyond the boundaries of the house above him. He activated his comm as he started to follow the hallway to his left.

“May, I’m in the basement now. It looks ancient, just like the rest of this area and it seems to run underneath the entire row of houses. She could be in any of them right now. I’ll try to follow her, you need to make sure she doesn’t get out upstairs.”

“Understood,” Agent May answered curtly, leaving Ward to follow his target in silence.

The night-night gun in hand, just in case, he hurried down the tunnel, checking both the doors to his left, that led to the buildings upstairs, and the ones to his right, which led to further parts of the basement, but so far all of them were locked.

As he was making his way towards the next section, Ward noticed that the door leading upstairs was standing slightly ajar. He raised the gun in his hand as he moved towards it, but just as he pushed the door open slightly, he suddenly heard the faintest noise behind him, and with reflexes honed in years of training, he spun around just in time to see a metal rod coming right at his face.

Ward managed to evade the blow just barely, but instead the gun was knocked from his hand. He was able to get a good look at his attacker, however, confirming that he had indeed found his target, Olivia Campbell. The bright red hair and the tattoos visible on the neck of the young woman were unmistakable.

Before he could start to congratulate himself, however, Ward had to duck once more as she swung the bar at his head again. Only this time he had been prepared and managed to get a hold of the weapon, wresting it out of the young woman’s grip. Just as he thought that he had the upper hand, though, she suddenly pulled out a small black cylinder from her pocket and directed it at Ward’s face.

The agent recognised the item as a pepper spray just in time to turn away, before it could hit his eyes full force, but the sensation was still painful enough to give the red headed woman the opportunity to escape. She pushed past Ward and up the stairs into the abandoned house above, causing the SHIELD agent to curse under his breath.

“May, I’m losing her, are you there? May?” he croaked out, but there was no answer over the comm, and so Ward hurried to follow Olivia, his eyes and throat burning from the spray.

“May,” he shouted once again, just as he heard the front door opening, the moment he made his way up the stairs. Instead of answering over the comm, however, he suddenly heard the other agent’s voice coming from down the hall.

“Going somewhere?” she asked calmly, followed by the sound of a punch as she sent Olivia crashing to the ground with one blow.

After seeing that the target was secure, Ward leaned against the railing of the stairs, coughing heavily to get the remains of the pepper spray out of his throat and lungs. As he made his way into the rundown bathroom of the house to drink some water, May brought their prisoner into the adjoining living room, handcuffed her and forced her to sit on the floor, while she waited for her partner to recuperate.

“Are you okay?” she asked with a raised eyebrow as Ward left the bathroom again, but the agent nodded immediately, already feeling better.

“Yeah, she barely hit me with that stuff. I’m ready if you are.” Now it was May’s turn to nod, but before either of the agents could say anything, their prisoner suddenly spoke up, drawing their attention towards her.

“You know, I don’t know why you SHIELD guys are suddenly after me, but you’re not going to get any info on my clients from me. All the files I had were on my computer and that’s blown to bits. I doubt even the rocket scientists of SHIELD will be able to salvage anything from _that_ hard drive.”

“We’re not here for your clients,” Ward replied stoically. “We’re looking for Curtis Tyler, you know, your _brother_. I’m pretty sure you know where he is, even without having to look at one of your files first.”

“We need to get moving, Coulson wants us to bring her back ASAP,” May announced at this point without giving the redheaded woman the chance to reply anything. As she waited for Ward to get their prisoner back to her feet, however, it became increasingly obvious that he was reluctant to do so. Eventually, he even reached for his earpiece and removed it.

“ _What_?” May asked warily.

“It’s just,” Ward began, not quite knowing how to phrase this. He sighed and began again, looking May straight in the eye.

“Skye has been gone for days now and we don’t even know if she’s still alive. We’ve already wasted so much time chasing false leads; we can’t afford to lose any more.”

“What are you saying?” the other agent asked cautiously.

“I’m saying that taking her back to the Bus,” he nodded his head at Olivia, “is just going to cost time. Time Skye might not have," he explained, looking at his partner with a grim expression. The senior agent sighed in light of this massive break of protocol.

"So you propose that we interrogate her here?" She obviously wasn’t thrilled by the idea, but she wasn’t arguing against it, either.

"Yes, exactly. Here, away from any cameras, away from Coulson. Give me five minutes with her and she’ll tell us everything she knows about Tyler."

This prompted a short laugh from the woman on the ground. She spat the blood that had gathered in her mouth from May’s earlier blow at Ward’s feet, then looked up at the agent with spite.

“You’re crazy if you believe I’ll tell you anything about my brother. And if you think you’ll find him on your own, you honestly don’t know who you’re dealing with. Arrest me if you want, you can even try to beat it out of me, but I won't help you find him.”

The expression on Ward’s face hardened as he looked down at their uncooperative prisoner. Before May could react, he grabbed the woman with both hands by her shirt and started dragging her across the room. As they had reached the wall, he slammed her against it hard, causing her to grunt in pain. Ward moved in on her, so he was staring directly into the forger’s face, his voice low and threatening as he spoke again.

“You listen to me carefully. You see, I don’t care that Tyler is your brother. He has one of my team, and I want her back. So I am willing to do whatever it takes to find him and don’t think I’ll go easy on you just because you’re a woman, understood?”

Several seconds passed, while the two stared at each other, both trying to outlast their opponent. In the end it was Olivia, who spoke first.

“Sorry, can’t help you.”

Without even really thinking about it, Ward pulled his right arm back, his hand forming into a fist, and he was just about to throw a punch at the red headed forger as May stepped in to stop him. She grabbed Ward’s arm, interrupting the attack, and causing him to turn his head to look at her in confusion and anger.

“You don’t want to go down this road,” she hissed at Ward, her expression stern and decisive. “Believe me, you don’t.”

“But she has the information we need to find Skye,” Ward argued angrily, not understanding why May had stopped him.

“I know,” the female agent answered, releasing him from her grip and taking a step back.

“Now let her go,” she ordered calmly, but Ward wasn’t ready to follow her command.

“What? You heard her, she isn’t going to tell us anything voluntarily, and Skye doesn’t have the time for us to play nice.”

“I know that, too,” May replied, still completely calm as she repeated her order. “But I told you to let her go.”

His reluctance showing all too clearly, Ward finally decided to trust his partner anyway, and released the forger from his grip, even straightening her shirt again in the process. He stepped back, his hands raised to signal that he was giving up.

“Alright, she’s all yours. Now what?”

“Now _I’ll_ talk to her”, May announced matter-of-factly and, completely startling Ward, she suddenly grabbed their prisoner by the arm, twisting it behind her back to get her under better control, and forced her through the nearby door into the rundown bathroom Ward had used earlier.

“Three minutes,” she announced quietly before closing the door in Ward’s face, her eyes making it perfectly clear that she was not to be disturbed under any circumstances.

Swallowing hard, Ward kept staring at the door, his mind racing as he tried to figure out why May was doing this. Why she had stopped him from laying a hand on their prisoner, when she was now obviously doing the very same thing herself.

It were only a few moments until he started to hear sounds of struggle from inside the bathroom, then protests and muffled screams. A part of him wanted to go inside, wanted to help May to make sure that she was alright, but he didn’t. A very small part of him was even concerned that she might go too far, but he ignored that impulse, too, and instead started to pace the room, anxious for the interrogation to end.

He kept running his hands through his hair nervously, until the bathroom door finally opened again and Agent May stepped outside, looking as impeccable as ever while the room behind her was a mess. The forger was lying in a foetus position on the floor, soaking wet, the shower head dangling out of the bath tub next to her. To Ward’s amazement she even seemed to be crying, although her expression was angry.

The agent blinked a few times as he tried to make sense of the situation, looking from the woman on the ground to Agent May and back.

“What did you...” he began, but she cut him off as she walked past him, paying no heed to the state of the woman in the bathroom.

“I’ve got a name, but we can’t risk her warning her brother. Take her and then let’s go.”

**To be continued...**


	19. Plenty Of Blame To Go Around

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for breaking the flow, but you’ll have to wait one more chapter for news on our favourite hacker. ;)

Coulson was waiting for them on the gallery overlooking the cargo bay as the car pulled up the ramp. He watched in tense silence as May and Ward got out of the black vehicle, the latter opening the back door to pull out the still completely drenched red headed woman they had just taken into custody.

Coulson seemed to be momentarily taken aback by the state of their prisoner, but even though his brow furrowed slightly, he ignored it for the moment and addressed May instead.

“That name she’s given you guys – Talos – it helped us pinpoint an approximate destination. I’ll explain everything, but right now I need you to get us back in the air as quickly as possible.”

May nodded briefly, perfectly understanding Coulson’s desire not to waste another second on this mission.

“Of course,” she replied, but glanced back at Ward to make sure he was okay with her leaving him alone with their prisoner.

“It’s alright, I got it,” he answered with a small nod, seemingly guessing his partners’ thoughts.

As the pilot made her way up to the cockpit, Coulson turned his attention to the remaining specialist, this time taking a closer look at the woman he was still holding by the arm.

“Thank you very much for your cooperation Olivia; it’s fine if I call you Olivia, right?” he asked, but without waiting for an answer before turning his attention back to the member of his team. “Ward, get her a change of clothes and then put her in interrogation. I’m sure she still has a lot of things she’d like to share with us.” He was already about to leave the cargo bay, but before he went through the door, he looked down at the area below once more, calling out to the younger agent.

“Meeting upstairs in five.”

 

* * *

 

“Now, can someone please explain to me why I just turned this plane back around in the direction we came from?” May asked as she approached the command centre, where Coulson and the rest of the team were gathered. “Please don’t tell me that Skye has been back in Colorado Springs this entire time.”

“No, she’s in Kansas,” Coulson replied, causing the pilot to raise an eyebrow in surprise.

“No, really, she is. Have you ever heard of an organisation called Talos?” He looked from Agent May to Agent Ward, who had also just joined them a few moments ago, but both specialists shook their heads negative.

“It’s the name Tyler’s sister gave us; apparently they are the ones her brother is working for at the moment, but I’ve never heard of them before,” May answered, speaking for both of them.

“Well, I have,” the team’s leader replied matter-of-factly while selecting a file at the computer table and putting it on display on the main screen.

“Meet Trevor Green, ex-mercenary and self-declared saviour of humanity,” Coulson announced as he looked up at the picture of the man in question, a faint grin passing over his features as he saw the startled reaction of his team. However, his expression hardened again immediately as he continued.

“About ten years ago, Green was working for a corporation in the Middle East, where he witnessed an unfortunate incident involving a piece of alien technology. SHIELD managed to step in quickly and contain the situation, but ever since then he has become obsessed with strange artefacts and events, possible alien encounters, and most of all SHIELD’s involvement in covering them up. He was, or rather is convinced that by hiding these things from the world we are effectively keeping humanity from protecting itself against whatever is out there and so he decided to take matters into his own hands.

He founded Talos and tried to gather as many men around him as possible in an effort to – how did he put it in his manifest – oh right, to put the protection of humanity into the people’s hands and out of the control of shadow government organisations.” Coulson shook his head at the last part, clearly not agreeing with any of Green’s reasoning.

“Why didn’t SHIELD stop him?” Agent Ward wondered, knowing the organisation’s usual response in similar cases.

“Simply put, because people thought he was a nutjob,” Coulson replied, completely deadpan. “SHIELD kept tabs on him, but his following was incredibly small, consisting mostly of conspiracy theorists and a very small circle of people, who had worked with him before and trusted him. But then everything changed,” he began, only for Fitz to finish his thought.

“When the Chitauri invaded Manhattan.” The scientist’s expression was glum, as he was obviously left completely cold by the tentative hope that had affected the rest of the team, now that they were getting closer to finding Skye.

“Exactly,” Coulson agreed, traces of regret shining in his eyes. “At that point SHIELD was active on so many fronts that Green and his group managed to slip through the cracks. The last I heard was that the number of his followers had grown exponentially – they’re calling him _‘the Colonel’_ now – but then Talos suddenly dropped completely off our radar. Until now that is.”

“So you have a lead that puts them in Kansas?” May asked warily, feeling that the pieces were falling together a little too easily.

“Nothing current, no, but I got in touch with HQ and apparently there have been several sightings of known Talos members in north-west Kansas over the past few weeks, from Topeka to Kansas City. That’s not very specific yet, I know, but if they have a current base of operations, it has to be in that area. They’re running a full analysis of all the data they have on the Hub’s servers as we speak, so hopefully it won’t take long until we have a more tangible target.”

As she couldn’t really think of anything to answer to that, Agent May remained silent while she stared up at the picture of the man, who appeared to be the true mastermind behind Skye’s disappearance. However, despite the progress they had made so far, there was still one question left unanswered. Before she could ask it, though, Ward beat her to it as he suddenly addressed Coulson, his voice sceptical.

“Alright, so Trevor Green ordered Skye’s kidnapping and Curtis Tyler was the one, who executed it, but why _her_? What makes Skye so special to them that they would go to such lengths to kidnap her? And why not target me as well? What information can they possibly hope to gain from Skye? She’s not a SHIELD agent, she doesn’t even have any level of clearance or access to restricted data.”

Coulson pondered the question for a long moment, his lips forming a hard line as he tried to come up with a reason why anyone would target his team’s rookie.

“Skye might not be a SHIELD agent, but she has already had a lot of insight into SHIELD operations and tactics and that without anything more than basic training, which makes her a much softer target than most agents, including you. And let’s not forget her hacking abilities; she would be a valuable asset to anyone.” He was still trying to decide whether this simple explanation could really be the reason for what had happened to Skye, when Agent Simmons spoke up for the first time since this meeting had started.

“What about Centipede?” the scientist asked tentatively, looking from Coulson to the others. Her C.O. wasn’t entirely sure where she was headed with this question, one eyebrow raised in confusion as he replied.

“What about them? You know that O’Leary never really contacted us, that entire lead was... was faked,” he finished haltingly, understanding dawning on his features.

“Wait, stop,” Fitz suddenly blurted out now, looking from his lab partner to Coulson and back again. “Can we back this up a few steps? I thought that Centipede wasn’t involved in any of this after all, that that was just a ruse to set up the fake meeting, so Talos could get to Skye. Or did I miss anything?”

“No, you didn’t. But if this is how it all went down, then the question would be how Talos knew about Centipede in the first place. How they could know that this team would be involved in the operation and that the mere chance of getting a step closer to Centipede would be enough for us to neglect the search for Skye,” Coulson pondered. “They could have known about Centipede’s existence from a lot of sources, but their connection to us is something that they could have learnt about only from us or from them.”

“You mean Talos could be in direct contact with Centipede?” Ward asked, not sounding entirely convinced.

“Yes, at least it would make sense. We might not know yet what exactly Centipede is trying to achieve, but we know that they have an interest in alien technology, just like Talos, and that both organisations are actively working against SHIELD. Even if they’re not cooperating directly, they must have at least shared enough information so Green knew how to lure us into a trap.”

“Alright, so I guess if Centipede actually helped with Skye’s kidnapping, then that’s one more in a long list of reasons to take them down once we get the chance, but how is that going to help us now? How is knowing who said what going to get us any closer to finding Skye?” Fitz interrupted the others’ enthusiasm, looking at his fellow agents exasperatedly. For a moment he appeared to be slightly embarrassed by his own bluntness, but he kept his head high, standing his ground.

“It isn’t,” Agent Coulson finally admitted grudgingly, his eyes shifting from Agent Fitz back to the screen and to the information they had on Talos, taking on a look of determination. “And we’re not going to wait for HQ to come up with something, either. We have our own lead sitting in the cage right now and we’re going to find out what she knows. Because I’m tired of waiting, tired of the trails we follow turning out to be nothing but smoke and mirrors. We’re going to find Skye today and bring her home, because—”

The agent suddenly broke off as a drastic change on the main screen captured his attention, throwing him off. There had been several windows on display, showing pictures and a bunch of other data they had on Talos, but they were now closing one by one, either vanishing completely or being replaced by a blank field with nothing but the notice ‘data not found’.

Before Coulson even knew what was happening, Agent Haze had hurried forward to the computer table, where she was now typing frantically on the keyboard and sifting through various files.

“No,” she uttered silently, paying no heed to the other agents around her. “No, that can’t be.” Before she could say anything else, Fitz was beside her, pulling up a keyboard of his own and beginning to work in an equal hurry.

“Please tell me this isn’t what it looks like,” he muttered as he glanced over to the computer expert, but obviously without much hope. She didn’t answer, but only shot him a desperate look, telling him everything he needed to know.

“Okay, what the hell is happening here?” Ward now asked harshly, staring angrily at the two tech specialists. “Because it looked as if all the data on Talos just vanished, but that can’t be it, right? That information is in SHIELD’s database, so what, did we lose the connection, or what’s going on?”

As Agent Haze was still typing furiously, Fitz found himself in the position to explain the situation to the rest of his team, his gaze shifting nervously between them, until Coulson called him back to attention.

“Fitz, now!”

The agent nodded briefly, but his mouth opened and closed a few more times, before he finally pulled himself together enough to answer.

“It’s gone. The data on Talos, it’s gone, all of it.” Before he could add anything else, Agent Haze’s voice interrupted him, angrier than any of the team had ever heard her in the short time she had been with them.

“Not just Talos, everything SHIELD had on Centipede has been deleted as well, and as far as I can tell, we won’t be able to recover any of the information. Somehow she managed to trick the servers into believing that the files contained an aggressive virus and so the system deleted the data on its own, making sure that it was completely destroyed.”

She sighed and closed her eyes as she leaned against the table in defeat, unaware of the confused looks the team was giving her.

“ _She?”_ Coulson finally asked, posing the question everyone was thinking. “You don’t think that was...”

“Oh, definitely. I told you before that I know her work and this was definitely Skye, who deleted all those files. I don’t think she left a trace, though, so I won’t be able to find her through this, but I’m absolutely certain that it was her.”

“So Tyler actually managed to force her to cooperate with him,” Fitz stated in disbelief, his eyes widening at the possible implications of this revelation. “Who knows what he did to Skye to get her to do this, to help Talos against SHIELD.”

“Fitz, you can’t think like that. At least it means that Skye is still alive,” Jemma pointed out, an uncertain smile on her face. For a moment she seemed to be the only one focusing on the positive side of this, until Coulson nodded in agreement, turning back to the scientist and the rest of the team.

“Jemma is right. We already have enough information on Talos to know who we’re dealing with, and our prisoner is going to tell us everything else we need to know to find Skye.”

“Let me go in there with you, sir,” Ward proposed, looking at his C.O. almost pleadingly. He wanted to get more involved in the search for Skye to try and make up for his earlier negligence, but the older man shook his head, denying him his second chance to question Tyler’s sister.

“No, you and May have done a good job with getting Olivia to give us the name of her brother’s employer, but for now I think we’ll go with a less... drastic approach. Agent Haze, I want you to talk to her,” he announced, completely startling the computer expert.

“What, why me? Isn’t this something you would rather want to do yourself?” the blonde woman wondered, clearly surprised.

“With Skye being missing, we’re all personally invested in this mission, I no less than the rest of my team, and I don’t want anyone with a clouded judgement going in there. Also, you know more about Curtis Tyler than any of us, and didn’t you say that you interrogated his sister before?”

“I just witnessed the interrogation, I wasn’t part of it,” Haze replied, shaking her head.

“Even better,” Coulson answered to the agent’s surprise, turning her objection around. “That means your relationship isn’t handicapped when you try to get Olivia to cooperate with us. Now get in that room and find out where Tyler is keeping Skye, she has been waiting long enough for us to find her.”

As she knew that Coulson’s reasoning was sound, Agent Haze merely nodded, before she left the command centre in the direction of the interrogation room.

 

* * *

 

The entire team was still gathered in the command centre, where they were anxiously watching the feed from the interrogation room, eager to see if Olivia Campbell would be willing to give up any more information about her brother. They saw Agent Haze enter the room, fully aware of all the eyes resting on her, but not even as much as glancing up at the camera.

“What name is your brother going by these days,” Haze asked and took a seat opposite from the red headed woman sitting at the table. “I know he always uses an alias, so what is it for this job?”

Taking her time studying her opponent, Olivia leaned back in her chair as far as her handcuffs, which were tied to the table, allowed her to. She seemed to be pondering whether she should even answer the question, but in the end she obviously decided to play along for now.

“He calls himself ‘Jack’ at the moment, or at least that’s the name he had me put in the fake papers I made for him.”

“Any idea where he is right now? You told the agents who captured you that he is working for a group named Talos, and that’s been really helpful, but we’re still trying to figure out where exactly they’re hiding out.”

“So it really is true then, isn’t it?”

Not liking the pleased tone of her prisoner, Haze eyed her warily before replying.

“Is what true?”

“My brother really did manage to kidnap a SHIELD agent this time. Good for him,” Olivia finished with a smirk, causing Ward over in the command centre to clench his fist in anger.

“You owe your brother a lot, don’t you?” Agent Haze asked, ignoring her prisoner’s remark. “He was the one, who always looked out for you when you two were younger, right?”

The red headed woman merely laughed at the question and leaned forward, fixating the SHIELD agent with an unwavering glare.

“So you read up on my family history, is that supposed to impress me? It’s true, though,” she admitted freely, leaning back in her chair again. “Our mother is a drunk, and not the friendly kind. She hit Curtis until he was so tall that she wouldn’t dare to any longer and the last time she hit me was the day before I left home. My brother could have gotten out of that place when he turned eighteen, joined the army as he had wanted to, but he didn’t, because he didn’t want to leave me alone with her. He stayed there for five more years, until I was old enough to live on my own, and then we both skipped town and never looked back. I even took on my dad’s name; I mean he was a deadbeat, but that was still better than _her_.”

Now it was Agent Haze’s turn to lean back in her chair and study the other woman in silence for a moment. She had known most of this, of course, but to hear it now from Olivia’s mouth made her wonder how one person could have so many different sides. Because going by his sister’s point of view, Curtis Tyler sounded like a damn saint.

“He’s your hero, isn’t he?” she finally asked gently, studying her opponent’s reaction. “I mean, your brother saved you when you were still a child, and even now that he has left a trail of blood in his wake and made enough powerful enemies to spend the rest of his life in hiding, you’re still the one fixed point in his life. You’re the only one he trusts, his confidante.” She let the words sink in for a moment, waiting for Olivia to say anything, but she didn’t. She just seemed to be waiting for the SHIELD agent to make her next move.

“And yet you betrayed him.” The anger passing over the forger’s face proofed that she had hit a nerve with her accusation, but Agent Haze pressed on, not giving her the opportunity to react yet. “You gave your brother up by telling us who he’s working for, which tells me that you’re not as loyal to him as you claim to be. You’re on your own in this and believe me when I tell you that you do not want SHIELD as your enemy. Curtis is holding one of ours right now and if we have to find her without your help, there will be a _very_ small cell waiting for you at the Fridge when this is over. So I suggest you choose your answer very carefully.”

The agent waited for a reaction in tense silence, but the one she got was not exactly what she had expected.

A smug and almost arrogant grin spread on Olivia’s lips as she replied, clearly not intimidated at all.

“I didn’t give up Curtis, I gave up the people he’s working for right now, that Talos group, and do you want to know why? It wasn’t because that Asian bitch asked me so _nicely_ , but because their leader is a psychopath. That entire group is basically a bunch of Nazis with a grudge against anything they can’t explain, but their boss, he’s the worst of them; he’s dangerous and a walking hazard to everyone around him. I’ve never liked you government types, and I never will, but someone needs to take him out, and as far as I’m concerned, it might as well be you. Curtis is smart and he can look out for himself, so I don’t believe for a second that you’ll be able to catch him. I just hope you’ll put an end to those Talos fanatics once and for all.”

“If they’re such a bunch of fanatics, why does your brother work for them? You’re telling me he’s smart, and going by what I’ve seen so far I actually believe that, so why would he join Talos?” Haze asked in disbelief, trying to understand her enemy’s reasoning.

“I don’t know, money?” Olivia replied, shrugging. “The opportunity to get back at SHIELD, maybe? As far as I know, you have screwed up a couple of his operation so far, so maybe he wanted to take this chance to get his hands on one of your agents for once.” She broke off for a moment, a malicious grin forming on her lips as she glanced up at the camera, clearly aware that the rest of the SHIELD team was watching her right now. “I bet he enjoyed breaking her.”

Olivia kept her eyes fixed on the camera for a few seconds before looking back at Agent Haze, while back in the command centre, both the remark and the sardonic tone of her voice were making Ward’s blood boil in his veins. Right now he wanted nothing more than to get in there and show their red-headed prisoner just how it felt to be broken, but he fought hard to restrain himself and focused instead on the fact that she was already cooperating. She was leading them to Skye anyway, so all this attitude was nothing more than a cheap attempt to get under their skin one more time before all of this was over, and he wasn’t going to do her the favour and react to it.

Ward wasn’t the only one affected by the forger’s taunting, however. Jemma, who was lacking the proper training to keep her emotions in check, couldn’t stop herself from suddenly bursting into tears. She quickly pressed her hands over her mouth in a desperate attempt to stop herself from sobbing.

“Oh, I can’t watch this,” she choked out, shaking her head, before turning around and leaving the room, presumably in the direction of the lab.

“I’ll... I’ll go and check on her,” Leo announced immediately as he watched his friend storm off, worry clouding his features. “Just let us know if she says something that will actually lead us to Skye.” He glanced at the screen one last time before leaving as well to follow Simmons.

The rest of the team was startled for a moment, but their attention returned to the video feed quickly as Agent Haze continued with the interrogation in a completely calm tone, not letting Olivia’s comment get to her.

“You know your brother is a torturer and that doesn’t faze you at all?”

“Why should it? He’s not a killer, unless he has to be, and don’t pretend like you’re only touching your prisoners with kid gloves, alright?” At this point Olivia looked at the camera once more, but this time it was more of an angry glare and there was no doubt about who it was directed at. Agent May showed no reaction, though, and simply continued watching the screen.

As Olivia looked back at the agent interrogating her, she shrugged as if she was really not getting the big deal Haze seemed to be making of what her brother was doing.

“Look, you SHIELD agents are all trained to withstand torture, right? I mean, I know Curtis broke that girl anyway, but I’m sure she’ll be fine. Eventually.”

The blonde agent’s jaw clenched tightly for at moment, but that was the only display of emotion she allowed herself. Otherwise she was completely calm, not even her voice betraying her concern and anger.

“Technically, Skye is still a consultant. She isn’t trained yet,” she informed her prisoner, curious to see if that would even make any difference to her.

A shadow of what might have been sympathy crossed over Olivia’s features for a brief second, but it was gone again as soon as she continued.

“Well, that’s too bad for her, I guess. But if she wanted to join the big leagues, she should have been prepared for the chance of something like this happening. There are no training wheels in this business, right?”

This was as much as Agent Ward could take. So far he had been adamant to ignore Olivia’s taunting, but now his composure had finally cracked, leaving his raw emotions ready to spill out. He knew, if he didn’t get some distance between himself and that woman’s voice, there would be nothing stopping him from going into the cage himself to try and get a location on Skye by force.

With a sigh Ward excused himself from the command centre by announcing that he was already going to start preparing for the rescue mission. He knew of course that neither May nor Coulson could possibly believe this weak excuse, but it didn’t really matter either way.

After he had left, it was silent in the room for a moment, except for the voices coming from the speakers, but then Agent May suddenly spoke, glancing over at Coulson as she did.

“He’s blaming himself for what happened to Skye, and I know he’s not the only one.”

“There’s plenty of blame to go around for this,” Coulson agreed, without admitting to anything. “What happened back in Toronto, when your comms suddenly went out, is that anything I have to be concerned about?” he asked, now looking directly at the team’s pilot. May shook her head, even though her expression didn’t betray her real emotions as usual.

“No. Ward is extremely dedicated to finding Skye, of course, but he has it under control. And I’ll be there to make sure that his emotions won’t cloud his judgement.”

“What about _your_ emotions?” Coulson asked, a sad smile ghosting over his lips. “We’re a team, May, I don’t think anyone of us is unaffected by this.”

The female agent looked at her C.O. for a long moment, as if she wasn’t quite sure what to answer to this. In the end she obviously decided to go the safest route.

“I’ll go and talk to Ward, see how he’s doing after having to listen to this,” May announced, nodding in the direction of the screen where they could still see Agent Haze questioning Olivia. The smile was back on Coulson’s lips, but a lot more genuine this time as he watched May with knowing eyes.

“Yeah, you do that.”

Pointedly ignoring her friend’s tone, the specialist left the command centre and made her way down to the cargo hold, where she knew Ward had been headed. Sure enough, she soon found him, surrounded by a few weapon crates, already choosing his gear for the rescue mission. May watched him in silence for a little while without making her presence known, wondering how exactly she had wound up as the counsellor of this team anyway.

“You know she’s right, don’t you?” she finally called out to the other specialist, clearly startling him.

“Who’s right?” Ward asked after a brief moment of regaining his composure as he looked up at May. The female agent rolled her eyes in return as she made her way down the spiral staircase to approach him.

“Don’t play dumb with me. Campbell, when she said that there were no training wheels in this business. It’s true and you know that. We plan and we prepare, but every time we go out on a mission, we accept that there is a risk involved. And Skye might not be an agent yet, but she isn’t dumb, either. She knew what she was getting herself into, if not in the beginning then at least after what happened with Lydon. She could have left the team then, but she chose not to and with that decision she also accepted the danger that would come with being part of SHIELD and standing at the front lines.”

Ward remained silent for a moment as he opened another crate of weapons, pulled out one of the guns, and continued to check it thoroughly.

As he finally spoke again, he kept his eyes on the weapon, not wanting to face May.

“Every mission has its risks, that’s true, and I’m aware that Skye knows that, too, but that woman was still wrong. There _are_ training wheels in this business, and they’re called a supervising officer. I’m supposed to look out for Skye until she’s ready, until she can look out for herself, but I failed her. We went out there together and I _lost_ her. And I didn’t even notice it until it was too late.” He pushed the weapon in his hand back down into the crate angrily, before standing up and turning to face Agent May.

“We don’t even know what’s been done to her, other than that she’s been tortured. Is still _being_ tortured most likely,” he corrected himself, shaking his head as he couldn’t get the images out of his mind. “Maybe she’s half dead by now, or Tyler brainwashed her, but whatever state she’s in, I know that it is _my_ fault.”

As she knew how protective Ward was about the team, and especially Skye, and that he had the tendency to feel responsible for everything, May wasn’t really surprised about her partner’s outburst. She still didn’t like seeing him this way, however, and so she thought carefully about her next words, trying to relieve his guilt even if only a little.

“You weren’t the only one who fell for Tyler’s ruse. This isn’t just on you, Ward, we are all to blame for what is happening to Skye. It would have been right to trust her, yes, but I guess in this line of work it’s simply easier to always expect the worst from people. That is what we’re trained for after all.”

“ _He_ didn’t,” Ward replied, looking over at Fitz in the lab, who was keeping himself busy with working on one of his machines, while he was talking to Jemma, completely oblivious to the attention he was now receiving.

“Tell me, how is it that with all the years of field experience you, Coulson and I have under our belts, the only one who did not doubt Skye for even a second is the dorky scientist, who’s still wet behind the ears and thinks bringing a prosciutto sandwich on a secret op where we’re being chased by dogs is a good idea.”

Agent May couldn’t help but smile at this, as she followed Ward’s gaze and watched Fitz tinkering with his machine.

“Out of the mouths of babes,” she simply replied, causing her partner to actually smile slightly in return, for what must have been the first time in days.

After this they both remained silent for a while as May joined Ward in looking through the various weapons they had stored, until she finally got back to her feet, intend on finding out what progress the interrogation had made so far.

Before she left, however, she looked at the other specialist once more, needing to make sure that his head was still in the game despite everything that had happened.

“You know that we’re going to find her, right?”

“Yes, I know,” Ward replied without looking up, staring intently at the weapon he was just busy cleaning.

A small sigh escaped May’s lips as she continued to watch him with worry in her eyes, but her voice didn’t betray any of this as she went on.

“And Skye isn’t one to hold grudges; she will understand what happened, why we doubted her.”

“Yes, I know that, too. It’s what I’m afraid of.”

May opened her mouth to answer, but didn’t really know what to say to this, so in the end she closed it again and turned to leave instead. She figured that her partner could probably use some space right now.

Just as she was about to climb the staircase again and leave the cargo bay, Ward called after her, effectively stopping the agent in her tracks.

“May.” The tone of his voice was grave and he turned around from his work to look at the other specialist thoughtfully. “Why did you stop me earlier?”

This time it was the female agent’s turn to look confused.

“What do you mean?” she asked, one eyebrow raised slightly.

“Back in Toronto, when you stopped me from hitting Tyler’s sister. You said you didn’t want me to go down that road, but then you went ahead and worked her over yourself. Why the hell did you do that? Didn’t you think I could have gotten the information out of her as well?”

The anger in his voice was unmistakable, but May chose to ignore it as she took a step back from the stairs and faced Ward once more, her arms crossed in front of her chest.

“Oh, I’m sure you would have made her talk, too, but right now you’re completely desperate to find a lead on Skye, no matter what it takes, because you feel guilty for doubting her. I just didn’t want you to do anything you might have regretted later.”

“I wouldn’t have regretted it,” Ward replied grimly without hesitation. May looked at him in silence for a few seconds before replying matter-of-factly.

“And maybe that would have been even worse.” She turned to leave, but Ward called after her one more time.

“What about you, then? Why was it alright for you to do that, but not for me?” May was already at the top of the stairs when she stopped, but didn’t even look back down at Ward as she answered him.

“I’ve done a lot of things in my life I’m not proud of, and several I regret. One more doesn’t make a difference.” With that she finally left, and as Ward watched her retreating form, his anger from before vanished and he was left wondering if he shouldn’t rather be feeling grateful for May’s interference than continue being angry about it.

**To be continued...**


	20. A Promise

Jack’s expression betrayed not a single emotion as he kept pressing his arm around Skye’s throat, cutting off both her air supply and the flow of blood to her brain to make sure she would fall unconscious within seconds. The young woman tried desperately to free herself from his grip, but he was a lot stronger than her and all the strength she had left was fading quickly as she ran out of air, leaving her completely at his mercy.

Skye let out a pained choking noise and gasped Jack’s name, her eyes full of fear and desperation, but the blond man did not loosen his hold on her.

He knew that his boss, whose assault attempt on the young woman he had just cut short, was watching him angrily, but he kept his entire focus on Skye and her struggle against him.

“It’s going to be over soon,” he assured her silently, not really caring that his words were making his actions seem a lot more final than they were intended. Soon it didn’t matter anyway, as Skye finally lost consciousness and sank down in her chair, completely limp.

At this point Jack released his grip on the young woman and let her head fall down to her chest carefully, but not before checking that she was still breathing and he could feel her pulse against his fingers as he pressed them against her neck. He let out a small sigh of relief now that he was sure that Skye was unharmed, despite her unconscious state, but just as he was about to turn his attention away from the hacker, his boss, Trevor Green, suddenly spoke up, his voice vibrating with barely concealed anger.

“Do you think you’re making the calls here now?” It was as much an accusation as a question, really. “I wanted her to dig up some valuable intel from SHIELD's database, but I guess that’ll be difficult now that she is unconscious.”

“She wasn’t going to do it,” Jack replied, trying hard to keep his calm. “It took me long enough to get her to cooperate this far, pushing her any further could have made that entire progress undone.”

“Then tell me, what am I paying you for, exactly? You are here to get the girl to talk and make sure she does what she’s told and I don’t see that happening.”

“You wanted her to hack SHIELD’s servers and delete some data and she did just that. If you had let me known earlier that you also wanted her to help get a bunch of agents killed, I could’ve told you sooner that that wasn’t going to happen. Not yet. To get her to commit that kind of betrayal, I will need more time. A lot more,” Jack explained, but his boss merely let out a frustrated sound and shook his head in confusion.

“You hurt her, and then you hurt her some more until she complies; how difficult can that be?” he asked exasperatedly. “I’ve hired you because of your reputation; now don’t tell me you can’t manage to break some mouthy little girl!”

Jack was fully aware of how angry Green was that his operation wasn’t making as much progress as he had wanted it to and that he was tired of waiting, but having his interrogation and persuasion skills challenged did not sit well with the mercenary. His eyes narrowed dangerously as he answered his boss.

“Those agents on Skye’s team, and by extension all of SHIELD, they’ve become her family. She wasn’t going to put their lives in danger, no matter what you do to her. But if you give me more time, I’ll get her to give them up.

If all you had wanted was to put her through hell, all the while hoping that she’ll break, you could have just given a knife or a taser to one of these wannabe soldiers that follow you and let them get to work on her. But you found me instead, because you know I don’t fail. I’m already in Skye’s head and when I’m done with her, she’ll do _everything_ I ask of her, no matter what. She will pull the trigger herself, if I tell her to. But she isn’t there yet.” He glanced back down at the unconscious woman in the chair, before facing Green once more, an almost unnoticeable grin spreading on his lips.

“And to be honest, the reason why I just stopped you from attacking her is that I didn’t want you to jeopardise this operation. _Sir_ ,” he added, almost as an afterthought, knowing his boss’s temper.

The taller man scrutinised Jack, as if trying to decide whether or not to trust his word, but in the end he finally nodded, releasing the tension from the air.

“Alright, I’ll give you two more days to work on her, but by then I expect some real progress. Now get her back to her cell, we’re done here for today.”

Jack only nodded in reply, glad to have avoided a real confrontation, before picking up Skye’s unconscious form and throwing her over his shoulder unceremoniously.

 

* * *

 

Getting Skye back to her cell hadn’t taken a particularly long time, but it had given Jack a moment to think about the ultimatum the Colonel had just given him. He knew that he was on the right track with Skye, that at this point a psychological approach, exploiting her fears and weaknesses, was much more promising than physical torture, but he felt that it was still time to increase the pressure. When he finally put Skye back in her chair, he made sure once more that she was still breathing and her heartbeat was steady before tying her back up with the duct tape. This time he also placed a piece over her mouth, making sure she wouldn’t be able to scream the next time she woke up.

He watched the unconscious young woman for a brief moment, noticing her deteriorated state, but without really caring about it. If anything, it was making his job easier, as a bad physical condition could also take a toll on the mind, making sure she didn’t have the strength to fight him. After a while, Jack reached into one of his pockets and pulled out two small circular objects, about the size of large coins, and studied them for a few seconds before focusing back the still unconscious woman in front of him.

“You know, I’ve picked these up on a job I did a few years ago. The guy I interrogated was some kind of inventor, had all kinds of crazy gadgets in his house. Lots of useful stuff, too, but I think these I liked the most.” He leaned forward a little and attached one of the devices on each side of Skye’s neck, directly below her ears, then pressed a small button on them to activate them. There was no sound or light coming from the objects, but Jack knew that they were working. His eyes already lit up in anticipation of Skye’s reaction once she woke up.

“I really think you’re gonna find them very... impressive as well,” he finished with a smirk before getting back up and heading out of the door, making sure to lock it behind him.

 

* * *

 

After the two specialists had left, Coulson found himself alone in the command centre, still watching the video feed of Agent Haze interrogating Olivia Campbell.

After the forger had taken her time taunting the SHIELD agent, including a list of the worst and most painful interrogation tactics she knew her brother to use, they were finally getting back to the one topic they really needed any information about: the location of Talos’ hideout where Skye would most likely be at the moment. Despite her earlier assertions, however, that she wanted the group destroyed as much as SHIELD, Olivia denied having any knowledge about her brother’s whereabouts.

“Do you really think he would give me an address where I can find him? You said it yourself, Curtis has a lot of enemies so even though he stays in contact, he isn’t stupid enough to give me his location.”

“He must have told you something!” Agent Haze replied, her patience wearing thin. “He even mentioned to you who he’s working for, didn’t he? Think, he must have said something – _anything_ – that can help us find him!”

Olivia shook her head at this point and rolled her eyes before she continued.

“I _told_ you, it’s been weeks since the last time I talked to my brother and that was for a few minutes at best. We both destroyed the burner phones afterwards, so I couldn’t have reached him again, even if I had wanted to. Yes, he mentioned Talos, but it’s not like he—” The red headed woman suddenly broke off and paused briefly, something that wasn’t lost on Agent Haze.

“What? What is it?” she asked, trying not to get her hopes up too much, before Olivia had even told her anything.

Any trace of frustration or uncertainty was gone from the forger’s face by now and she was entirely serious as she continued. “Well, there is something Curtis said that might be helpful to you, but before I tell you, I want something in return.”

“And what would that be?” Agent Haze asked, annoyed over the delay, but not surprised.

“A promise,” Olivia simply replied, but then elaborated. “As I said before, even if you manage to find Talos’ hideout and free your agent, I don’t think you’ll be able to catch my brother. He knows how to get out of a bad situation and I’m sure he’ll see you coming, but if by some off-chance you do manage to get to him, I want you to promise me that you won’t kill him. His life in return for that of your friend, that’s all I’m asking.”

Agent Haze hesitated a moment, thinking about her options. She knew that Olivia’s demand wasn’t unreasonable and well worth the information, but she also knew that it was hard to keep a promise like this in the field, especially if dealing with an opponent as dangerous as Tyler.

“Freeing Skye will be our first priority, but I promise that we’ll try to—”

At this point Olivia interrupted her immediately.

“No, you won’t just try! You give me your word, here and now, that he lives no matter what, or I won’t help you anymore. Then good luck with finding your team mate on your own.”

Haze let out a soft sigh as she glanced up at the camera, before finally nodding in agreement.

“Alright, I promise that we will take your brother alive at all costs, if we even manage to catch him, of course.”

“Good,” Olivia nodded, clearly relieved. “But don’t forget, if something does happen to him, I will hold _you_ responsible.” She kept fixating the agent with an unwavering glare for a few seconds, until she finally relaxed visibly and leaned back in her chair.

“Let’s find your missing agent then, shall we?” she asked, a playful grin on her lips. “The thing is, I never ask Curtis where he is, because I know he isn’t going to tell me anyway, so instead I just ask him if it’s nice there. And the last time we spoke he said ‘Dorothy would feel right at home here’.”

Agent Haze let out a sigh in frustration, the tension dropping from her shoulders.

“Yes, we already know that Talos is hiding somewhere in Kansas. That isn’t going to help us.”

“Maybe not, but he also said, ‘and the Tin Man probably would, too’. Now, is _that_ going to help you?” Olivia replied in turn, an eyebrow raised slightly.

Surprised by this new bit of information, Agent Haze looked up at the camera, wondering what Coulson and the rest of the team were thinking about it.

“Maybe,” she replied thoughtfully, before she suddenly got up from her seat and left the room in a hurry.

Olivia remained behind, with nothing left to do than stare after the agent angrily.

“Yeah, you’re welcome,” she shouted at the now closed door, “and don’t mind me, I’ll just wait here.” She tried to cross her arms in front of her chest in a sulky manner, but quickly had to realise that the handcuffs were preventing her from doing so, causing her to kick the table in frustration.

 

* * *

 

As Agent Haze approached the command centre, she realised to her surprise that only the agents Coulson and May were still in the room, currently very busy discussing something. They both immediately turned their attention to her, though, as they became aware of the blonde agent approaching.

“What do you think Tyler meant by that, ‘the Tin Man would feel right at home’?” May came to the point straight away without missing a beat.

“I suppose it’s connected to where he and the rest of Talos are currently hiding out, that his location has something to do with tin, or steel maybe. Of course it could also be something completely random, something he saw somewhere, but then we would be screwed, so I say we’re not going to focus on that,” Haze explained, managing a half smile as she stepped in front of the computer table and began typing hurriedly.

“We already have a rough area where Talos must have set up their base, and we also know that it’s not going to be somewhere downtown. Too many potential witnesses, too little space. Now, if this ‘Tin Man’ reference is really a clue, telling us that the base has some connection to metal, I would put my money on them hiding somewhere in an abandoned factory, or a warehouse maybe, something connected to the metal industry. Just give me a few minutes and I’ll have a list of potential targets.”

“I’ll tell Ward that we might have something,” Agent May announced after watching the blonde agent for a while, hating to stand around and do nothing while someone else was doing the research. Coulson nodded briefly in agreement, then watched her leave in the direction of the cargo hold once more to talk to Agent Ward.

It wasn’t long until May returned, this time with her fellow specialist in tow, obviously having already filled him in on the latest development.

“Have you found something yet?” Ward asked as soon as they reached the command centre, looking from Agent Haze to Coulson and back again. The female agent was still busy at the computer table, but glanced up as the two specialists entered the room.

“There are eighteen former, now abandoned, iron or steel factories and warehouses in north-east Kansas that match our criteria and would make for great hiding places for Talos.” She was about to say something more, but Ward interrupted her immediately, shaking his head in frustration.

“We don’t have the time to search eighteen places, Skye doesn’t have that time.”

“I know,” Haze agreed, nodding, a smile slowly appearing on her lips. “But luckily we have satellite images dating back several days for all the buildings. And there is only one factory that has seen a surprising amount of activity for being abandoned. It’s about 20 miles outside of Kansas City and here,” she reached for a tablet and typed on it for a few seconds before handing it to Coulson, “are the coordinates.”

The senior agent took the tablet with an honestly surprised expression on his face.

“You mean...”

“Yes, sir, we found her.”

The wave of relief going through the room was almost palpable and Coulson took a deep breath as he looked down at the coordinates in his hand. When he handed the tablet over to May, his eyes, his entire posture filled with determination.

“Set a course for the closest airfield. We still have a few hours until we’re there and in the meantime I am going to call in every favour I’m owed to make sure we have enough ground support to take that place in one fell swoop. Trevor Green might have a lot of men at his disposal, but we’re getting Skye out of there, no matter what.”

“Gladly,” May replied, an actual smile on her face, now that they had finally found their missing hacker.

 

* * *

 

When Skye woke up slowly, her head was throbbing in pain, her tongue and throat felt like parchment and it seemed like an eternity until she was able to form a coherent thought again. While she was still struggling to figure out what had happened, why she had been unconscious again, she noticed to her bewilderment that her mouth had been taped shut. She tried to move her lips, to force the tape off, but to no avail. In the end she gave up and sighed in frustration, but at this point Skye suddenly froze as she became aware of something else, something a lot more frightening.

She let out a soft groan to make sure and stiffened as panic began to spread through her.

She couldn’t hear. Not a thing.

Not that there was a lot of noise in her cell to begin with, but now she couldn’t even hear the sound of her own breathing, or the rush of blood in her ears as her heartbeat sped up in fear. Her eyes darted across the darkness around her, as if she expected to somehow be able to find the answer to the question how this had happened somewhere in her cell.

She now finally remembered what had happened earlier, that Jack had suffocated her until she had passed out, and she wondered if that could be an explanation. Had the lack of oxygen somehow caused enough damage to her brain that it would account for her deafness, and if so, was this going to be permanent?

The thought alone sent a cold shiver of dread down her spine and Skye desperately tried not to lose herself to her pain and fear again. The longer she remained in this complete isolation, though, trapped in the dark and surrounded by an impenetrable silence, the more of herself seemed to slip away from her.

Minutes and then hours passed by agonizingly slowly and in some way it began to feel as if she wasn’t even the one all of this was happening to in the first place. How could it be? How could this desperate, tear stained, broken mess of a woman possibly be her?

No, all of this, the kidnapping, the torture, the endless interrogations, all that had happened to Skye, the hacker, the brave, stubborn and _stupid_ girl that had set out to become a SHIELD agent, but right now she didn’t feel like she was that girl anymore.

No, right now she was just Mary Sue Poots, the girl from the orphanage, the girl without family, the girl without _anything_. The same girl who had cried herself to sleep at night after she had been sent back by yet another family and who had at some point simply refused to be sent into the foster system again, knowing how it was going to end, anyway.

Yes, she actually felt a lot like that right now, scared, alone, without any hope that her situation could possibly improve, ever. She had been heavily affected by the isolation before, the initial faint hope she had had of being rescued fading away in the darkness, but now that another sense had been taken away from her, this felt like a whole new kind of torture.

Completely motionless, blind and deaf, she felt like she had been turned into stone, more like a statue than an actual person, cold, numb, unhuman.

She could feel tears running down her cheeks, and she knew that at some point she had started sobbing, but the fact that she couldn’t hear herself made the entire situation feel completely unreal, just increasing her sense of detachment.

Every now and then she thought she’d heard something, a sound in the distance, voices whispering around her, but she knew that it was just her imagination playing tricks on her, compensating for her lost sense. There were even some brief flashes of lights and colours, glimpses of faces in the darkness, the image of Jack’s taser burning her skin, but she knew that it wasn’t real, that they were just hallucinations. Not that that made them any less frightening, of course.

The first few times she had still flinched when she had thought that she had seen something in the darkness around her, but at some point she had simply decided to ignore it, pressing her eyes shut tightly, hoping the images would go away.

Skye felt like she was slowly but surely going insane, but all she could do was hope and pray that someone would get her out of here soon. As she had stopped believing in a rescue a long time ago, she just wanted Jack to get her, to ask her some more questions, or to give her another hacking job, anything really, if only it meant for this nightmare to end.

She didn’t know how long it was, a few more hours maybe, but at some point the door in front of her actually opened again, and Jack entered the cell. She was blinking in the bright light from the corridor, but she knew his silhouette well enough by now, to recognise him immediately. As Skye realised that he wasn’t alone, however, that the tall man from before, his boss, was accompanying him, something told her that this wasn’t just a friendly visit.

Something was happening, something terrible and when Jack finally pulled his knife from its sheath once more, she knew that this time he wasn’t going to use it to simply cut the duct tape holding her. This time he was going to draw blood with it.

**To be continued...**


	21. The Appropriate Reaction

" _I bet he enjoyed breaking her._ ” Olivia Campbell’s cold voice echoed through Jemma’s mind as she hurried from the command centre and into the direction of the lab, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She knew that Fitz had followed her within seconds of her hasty retreat, had heard him calling after he, his voice filled with worry, but she didn’t stop until she found herself within the familiar walls of the lab, leaning against the table in the centre, her hands holding onto the edges as if for dear life.

She had been trying so hard not to think about it, not to imagine what Skye was going through, what was being done to her, but the taunting of that woman, Tyler’s sister, had finally gotten to her and now she couldn’t get the picture of Skye screaming in agony out of her head.

Somehow it seemed to have burned itself into her mind and for a moment, she thought that she could even hear her friend’s voice crying out in pain until a different voice finally managed to pull her out of the nightmare her imagination was creating for her. A softer, familiar voice that was also about the only thing capable of calming her right now.

“Jemma,” Leo almost whispered as he slowly approached the blond scientist, worry and compassion mixed in his features. Simmons didn’t turn around, though; instead she kept staring at the white glass surface of the holo table, trying desperately to regain her composure.

“Do you think it’s true?” she asked, her voice quivering slightly. “Did Tyler really break Skye? Is that why she did the hack into SHIELD’s servers?”

Fitz tried to think of a reply to this, something to console Jemma, but before he could come up with anything, the young woman continued, the shaking of her voice transferring to her body as she continued in a constricted tone.

“You said it yourself, who knows what he did to Skye to get her to do this, to help Talos against SHIELD. We have no idea what condition she’s in, or how long it will take her to recover. Or if she’s even going to recover at all and—” Jemma broke off as Leo was suddenly next to her, freed her hands from their death grip on the table and pulled her into a tight embrace, still at a loss for words.

For a short time he simply held the trembling young woman in his arms, her face buried in the crook of his neck, until he just couldn’t stand seeing her this desperate any longer. Leo managed to muster up every shred of optimism he had left and began murmuring words of encouragement into Jemma’s ear.

“We will find her, I know it, and Skye is going to be fine. Maybe not at first, no, but once she is back with us, back home with her family, she will be. We’ll make sure of that, you hear me, Jemma, we’ll make sure.”

Still not letting go of each other, the two scientists remained like this for a while, until Simmons nodded her head against Fitz’ shoulder, having decided to have faith in his words.

“Yes, you’re right; you just _have_ to be.”

Leo didn’t miss the uncertainty in her voice, and so he did his best to sound as convincing as possible as he replied. His expression, however, hidden from view, betrayed his own doubts all too clearly.

“I am. I know I am.”

 

* * *

“Are you sure?” Fitz asked, watching Agent Haze carefully, not yet ready to believe the good news she had just announced to him and Simmons.

“Yes, I am. We found Skye’s location and according to Agent May we’re going to be there in about three hours. I thought you’d want to know right away,” she finished with a smile, and this time at least Jemma had believed her, as she suddenly threw her arms around the agent, hugging her tightly.

“Of course we wanted to know. Thank you, thank you so much.” She released Haze again quickly, slightly embarrassed about her outburst, but a grin still plastered across her lips regardless.

“I have to admit that if it hadn’t been for Tyler’s sister, I’m not sure if we would have ever found Talos’ hideout,” the agent admitted, remembering her conversation with and her promise to their red headed prisoner. “I’m just glad she cooperated as quickly as she did, because she could have made this a whole lot more difficult.”

Jemma cringed at the mention, thinking back to what she had witnessed of the interrogation.

“Ugh,” she exclaimed, shuddering slightly, “that _horrible_ person. She knows that her brother tortures people for a living, and yet the way she talked about him, like she was actually _proud_ of him, of what he did to Skye...” The scientist broke off at this point, trying hard not to let the horrid images of her friend being tortured back into her mind.

“I know it’s easier said than done, but you can’t let something like this get to you. Olivia was just trying to push our buttons, lashing out the only way she could, because she knew that she was going to lose anyway. And she helped us find Skye, so I guess I’ll be able to look past the fact that she’s a psychopath like her brother,” Agent Haze pointed out.

“Are we even sure her information is legitimate, that this isn’t a trap?” Fitz suddenly asked, still reluctant to get his hopes up.

“Well, she didn’t give us direct coordinates, just a hint that helped us find the location, and everything indicates that Talos really is hiding there. If you’re asking if we have absolute proof that Skye is there, too, I’ll have to say no, but my gut tells me that she is. I’m sure that by tonight your team is going to be complete again.”

 

* * *

 

After Agent Haze had gone back up to the command centre, Fitz and Simmons had remained in the lab, knowing that they weren’t going to be of much help preparing assault strategies. Right now they were just waiting for time to move faster, anxious to finally be able to rescue their missing friend.

It was about an hour later, and they were still discussing Skye’s kidnapping while both keeping busy working on some of their projects as Simmons suddenly brought up a subject Fitz would have rather avoided.

“So, once Skye is safe, are you going to talk to Ward again on your own, or will I have to make you?” the young woman asked innocently, causing a deep frown to appear on Leo’s forehead.

“ _Make_ me? Why do you think you would have to make me talk to him? We talk, all the time, really.”

“Yes, and I was there the last time, remember?” Simmons recalled the heated argument between the two she had witnessed. “But I still haven’t seen you apologise to him.”

This finally got a reaction out of Fitz, and the young man looked at her incredulously.

“ _I,_ apologise to _him_ , really? That’s what you took away from that? How can you possibly think I’m the one, who has to apologise?”

Jemma wasn’t comfortable at all with having to play the mediator between the two men she both considered her friends, but in the end she replied honestly.

“Well, I just think that maybe you were a little too harsh to him earlier. I mean, none of us knew for sure what really happened to Skye, and Ward must be feeling terrible now that we know that she was kidnapped, and that maybe, if he had just reacted a little sooner, he could have saved her.” The biochemist fell silent for a moment, wishing for the umpteenth time that they could have somehow managed to rescue Skye from her kidnappers and to prevent this mission from becoming such a complete catastrophe in the first place. She also knew, however, that there was no point in dwelling on something she couldn’t change anymore, and so she continued, intent on fixing at least one of the things that had gone wrong lately.

“Anyway, I think that Ward has been awfully quiet since we found out the truth and I’m just worried that he’s beating himself up too much.”

Fitz let out a small humourless laugh as he packed up the last of the dwarfs he had been working on, before turning back to Simmons, an annoyed expression on his face.

“Or maybe it’s just that Skye is right with what she always says about him,” he replied, but quickly elaborated as he noticed the confused look Simmons was giving him. “You know, that he’s kind of a robot.”

Jemma was about ready to protest at this statement, but the loud thud of a heavy bag being dropped to the floor interrupted the two scientists, causing them to turn around to the entrance from the cargo hold in surprise. There they came face-to-face with Agent Ward, his expression betraying no reaction to what he must have just overheard.

“Coulson said you two are coming with us when we move out to get Skye, so get ready and pack your equipment. We don’t know what kind of defences we’ll be up against; that’s your priority, Fitz. And Simmons, you’ll need to be prepared to treat Skye in the field. Who knows what her condition will be, so you’ll have to be ready for anything.”

The scientists just stared at him for a moment after Ward had finished, both clearly embarrassed that he had overheard their conversation, but finally they both nodded to show that they had understood their assignments. As the specialist had already turned around to leave, however, clearly not in the mood to say anything else than what Coulson had sent him for, Simmons threw a quick glance at Fitz before hurrying after him.

“Ward, wait! I’m so sorry, we didn’t mean to—”

“It’s okay,” Ward merely answered as he kept heading towards the spiral staircase, but the young scientist managed to catch up with him first. She positioned herself between him and the stairs, effectively blocking his exit.

“No, Ward, it isn’t, it really isn’t okay! Fitz didn’t mean what he just said, he knows you’re not a robot. We all know. Right, Fitz?” she added, looking at her fellow scientist pointedly.

“Yeah, I guess,” he agreed half-heartedly, but as Simmons was already about to apologise again, he suddenly continued, much to his partner’s dismay.

“It’s just that we’ve been wondering why you have shown so little reaction to finding out what really happened to Skye. Knowing that she’s been kidnapped and tortured, I guess I just kind of expected it to get to you more, you know? But of course I’m not a specialist, so I don’t understand how you can be so cold about this.”

“ _Fitz_!” Simmons exclaimed exasperatedly, but Ward ignored her as he now finally did turn around and looked at Fitz with an expression that betrayed both hurt and anger. The engineer was clearly nervous in light of the sudden confrontation, but he didn’t back down, disappointment shining in his eyes.

“Alright, so how exactly did you want me to react? Please tell me, what is the appropriate reaction for what I’ve done, because I really haven’t figured it out yet.” Ward looked at Fitz expectantly, extending his arms a little as if he was prompting him to answer. The scientist remained silent, however, completely dumbfounded by this response. In the end the specialist continued with a little shake of his head, looking utterly defeated.

“I’ve made a mistake that might cost Skye _everything_ , but how is breaking down about it now going to do any good? How is it going to make up for what I did? Believe me, I know it’s my fault that Skye was kidnapped and that we didn’t start looking for her sooner, but right now I don’t have time to feel guilty about it. Skye has probably been through hell already and we don’t even know for sure if she’s still alive, but me panicking isn’t going to help her. Right now I’m only focused on finding her; how I feel doesn’t matter.”

It was completely silent in the cargo hold after Ward had finished, the tension in the air almost palpable as he and Fitz kept staring at each other. Simmons looked nervously from one agent to the other, a part of her wanting to step between them, but in the end she was simply too shocked by Ward’s outburst to really say or do anything.

“I’m sorry.” It was Fitz who finally broke the silence, genuine regret colouring his voice. He was obviously surprising both Ward and Simmons, but he continued before either of them had the chance to say anything. “Not just for this, but for earlier, too. I never should have called you a coward. An idiot, maybe, but not a coward.”

Ward actually let out a small laugh at this, clearly not having expected Fitz’ sudden change of heart.

“To be honest, I think I kind of deserved that,” he admitted, grimacing slightly.

“Yeah, I know,” Fitz replied, shrugging. “If everyone had just listened to me from the beginning, we wouldn’t be in this situation now, but that’s not really the point anymore, is it? Look, I’m not going to say that you didn’t screw up, because you did, but if I had to pick a single person to trust with Skye’s life right now it would still be you, because I know that you’re not going to rest until you find her and that you’ll bring her home safe and sound.”

“What makes you so sure of that?”

“Because I know I’m not the only one who cares a great deal about her, right?”

Simmons remained silent as she kept watching the two men in front of her. She didn’t have to guess twice as to what Fitz was alluding to, that Ward’s feelings for Skye were more than just friendly feelings among team mates, but she could also tell that the specialist didn’t want to talk about that.

“Yeah,” was the only thing he replied, while nodding at the Scottish scientist in gratitude. The specialist then added a small, “Thank you”, upon which Fitz returned his nod, before Ward headed back up the spiral staircase to join Coulson and the others once more.

 

* * *

 

Jack was standing in the surveillance room of the compound, his eyes fixed on one of the monitors, which was currently displaying the inside of Skye’s cell. The image was cast in the green hue of the night vision, enabling him to see the young woman despite the complete darkness around her.

Several hours had passed since he had locked Skye back up, and as she had regained consciousness not too long after, her initial shock over the increased level of her isolation had worn off by now. Her first reaction, however, the way she had struggled against her restraints in a frantic panic, had proven all too clearly that the devices he was using on her to render her temporarily deaf were working as well as he had expected.

He had seen what all the time being locked up in the dark was doing to her and although he couldn’t even make out Skye’s face at the moment, the way the camera was positioned, he could still tell that the young woman was in her own personal hell right now. It would soon be time to continue his work with her, as Jack was sure that by now she would prefer even his company over her solitude. Just as that thought had crossed his mind, though, an impatient voice from behind him interrupted his musings.

“So for how long exactly do you plan on just watching her sit there?”

“For as long as it takes,” Jack simply replied, not bothering to turn around as his boss was talking to him.

Trevor Green’s expression hardened at the mercenary’s displayed lack of respect for his authority.

“It’s already been hours. I’ve agreed to give you two more days, not a minute longer, and I don’t see you making any progress yet.” He had stepped next to Jack and was now watching Skye on the monitor as well.

“I’m working on breaking her resistance as we speak, so why don’t you just trust me that I know what I’m doing and let me do my job?”

“Your _job_ is whatever I tell you it is, and right now I’m telling you to show me some actual progress and not just this psycho crap.”

Jack didn’t answer immediately. His jaw clenched in anger as he thought about how much he hated having anyone interfere with his work, but he quickly reminded himself that Green _was_ the one, who was paying him after all – and quite well at that. It hadn’t been a coincidence that he had come to work for him, either. Despite his sometimes difficult personality, Green had put together an organisation that had to be taken seriously and his willingness to take a direct shot against SHIELD was what had convinced Jack to join Talos in the first place. At least for this operation. He never tended to stay with any group for long, but this time he actually considered giving it a try; provided he found a way to work with ‘the Colonel’ more smoothly.

Just as Jack was about to open his mouth to answer, though, he was suddenly cut short by one of Green’s men.

There were several soldiers present at the moment, some of them doing surveillance, others working on the data they had recently recovered from SHIELD. The two computer specialists that had been monitoring Skye’s hack into SHIELD’s system had managed to copy most of what the self-declared hacktivist had found on Talos and Centipede, before she had erased it, and were now analysing the intel SHIELD had gathered on them so far.

“Colonel,” one of the soldiers now called out to Green, sounding perplexed. “You’ve got a video call. That woman from Centipede, she wants to talk to you.”

The man moved away from his seat immediately to give Green some space, as the tall man was already approaching the monitor where the image of Raina had just appeared. She was looking at him expectantly, her trademark smile a little more subdued than usual.

“Raina,” Green greeted her in a friendly tone as he sat down in front of the monitor. Jack had positioned himself a small distance behind him, curious to see what this was about and eager to meet the mysterious woman in the flower dress, as he had missed her previous brief visit.

“To what do we owe the pleasure? Has the Clairvoyant already come to a decision regarding our future cooperation?” the Colonel wondered, only to receive an answer he clearly hadn’t anticipated.

“Yes, he has, but I’m afraid I have to inform you that it has not been in your favour. The Clairvoyant has seen that the future of your organisation will be extremely short-lived and that there would be no point in pursuing this alliance any further.”

“‘ _Short-lived’_ , what do you mean, _‘short-lived’_?” Green demanded to know, his temper coming to the surface quickly.

“I mean,” Raina explained patiently, her friendly demeanour unchanged, “that he has seen our mutual enemies heading to your location as we speak.”

“SHIELD has found us?” Green asked, shock written all over his face.

“Yes, and they are coming with a large number of agents. Their attack will be quick and decisive and I’m afraid the Clairvoyant does not see a future for your organisation after today.”

“He doesn’t know that!” Green spat out angrily, but as Raina replied, the serene smile on her face had taken on an almost eerie character.

“Oh, but he does. The Clairvoyant sees everything and he has seen your future as clear as day, what’s left of it anyway.”

Green jumped to his feet, furious, toppling his chair over in the process.

“I’ve built this organisation out of nothing without help from you or your precious Clairvoyant. This would have been an opportunity for all of us, but I don’t need Centipede. SHIELD doesn’t scare me, let them come.” He was already reaching for the keyboard to end the call, but Raina interrupted him before he could shut her off.

“Wait, there is one more thing.”

“What?” Green asked exasperatedly, clearly no longer in the mood to deal with the calm woman.

“‘Jack’, was it, right?” She asked, looking past Green and addressing the blond man behind him instead. The mercenary stepped forward in surprise, not having expected her to want anything from him.

“Yes, why?” He had his arms crossed in front of his chest and looked down at the monitor warily, not having any intention to take a seat.

“Well,” Raina continued in her soft voice, the smile never leaving her lips, “I have told the Clairvoyant how impressed I was with your work and he promised me that in case you manage to avoid being captured by SHIELD today, he will be willing to find a place for you in his organisation. So maybe I will be in touch,” she finished as she looked at Jack with a promising glint in her eyes, before ending the call on her side. The screen went black instantly, but Jack replied anyway, not particularly impressed.

“Don’t bother.” Then he turned his attention back to Green, who was already going over to the set of monitors that were hooked up to the various surveillance cameras they had installed in and around the abandoned factory.

Had Raina been telling the truth? Had SHIELD really discovered their location, and if so, how bad was the situation, how many agents had they send?

“Show me the street!” Green ordered curtly, prompting the soldier who was watching the monitors to comply in an instant. “I want to know if anyone’s coming up from the main road.”

The location of the factory, which was pretty isolated and a good distance from the next large street, had made the complex an ideal choice for their hideout and they had cameras along all possible access points, giving them an early warning in case they were discovered. Now the images on all the monitors switched to views of the outside; different angles of empty dirt-covered roads. They watched in silence for a moment, until one of the cameras suddenly caught sight of a single black van, then another, ultimately followed by an entire series of black vehicles heading their way, most of them sporting the all too familiar white SHIELD emblem.

“Damn it! How the hell did they find us?” Green burst out in anger, while Jack chose to remain silent. He was more interested in what was happening right now than how their enemies had managed to discover their location as his mind was already working on his next strategy.

The soldier who had been watching the monitor so far shook his head, before indicating the image in front of him.

“I don’t know, sir, but judging by their speed and position they’ll be here in less than five minutes. Should I give the order to evacuate?”

Green hesitated a brief moment, obviously considering his options, before answering.

“Destroy the hard drives and activate the explosives on the perimeter; that should buy us enough time to clear out. I’ll take care of the last remaining loose thread myself.”

Jack wasn’t surprised that his boss was furious about SHIELD ruining his operation, but he didn’t like the look in the other man’s eyes that was almost mad with hatred and anger. He also didn’t appreciate what Green had been implying and so he followed him out of the room as the taller man left, neither of them paying much attention as the guard at the monitor started to warn the rest of the men about the imminent assault.

“What are you going to do?” Jack asked as he had caught up to the Colonel.

“I have already seen this too many times; SHIELD swooping in and taking what doesn’t belong to them,” Green pressed out angrily, “covering up the truth and stepping on everyone who gets in their way. But not today. This time I have what they want and I’ll make sure that they won’t get it.”

“Killing Skye wasn’t part of the deal,” Jack protested as he got in Green’s way.

“So what? What do you care if the bitch dies? I’m not asking you to do it, am I?”

“No, but I gave her my word that she’ll survive if she cooperates with me, and she did. I always keep my word.”

“Not today, you don’t,” the Colonel replied, pushing his way past Jack. “It took a lot of effort to get this close to Centipede and the Clairvoyant, to get him to even consider an alliance, but now SHIELD has destroyed all that work for good. So I’m not going to let them get out of here with a win. The only thing they’ll take with them today is that girl’s corpse.”

Jack looked after Green for a moment, hesitating, his fist clenched in anger and frustration. He had given Skye his word and even though he did not consider himself a person with particularly high moral standards, this was something that was actually important to him. On the other hand, he was also well aware that he had joined Talos in particular for the opportunity to land a strike against SHIELD and the fact that they were sabotaging his plans once again did not sit well with him, either.

Jack sighed deeply as he took another moment to evaluate his options, before he finally came to a decision. He followed his boss down the corridor and called out to him before the taller man could reach Skye’s cell.

“Let me do it at least. I was the one who kidnapped Skye, I interrogated her, I should be the one to end it, too. And I can make it painful if you want me to,” he offered, knowing Green’s burning hatred for everyone associated with SHIELD. The smile that appeared on the Colonel’s lips was almost unsettling, even to Jack, but he still felt relieved when the other man ultimately nodded and motioned to him to take the lead.

“Who am I to stop the artist from finishing his work, right?” Green asked, his eyes glinting in anticipation. “It’s too bad we don’t have much time, but I still want you to make her suffer. Make sure she dies regretting her decision to ever join SHIELD in the first place.”

Jack nodded, but remained quiet as he walked past Green and opened the door to Skye’s room.

With the devices still attached to her neck, the young woman hadn’t heard his approach and was now blinking at the bright light in surprise and fear, the latter clearly intensifying as she became aware of the second person entering her dark cell.

“See the things underneath her ears?” Jack asked, glancing briefly at his boss. “Those devices make sure that she doesn’t hear anything. It really amplifies the isolation,” he explained, now looking down at Skye with an unreadable expression.

“You know, I meant to ask earlier, but why the darkness?” Green wondered. “I think you’ve let her sit here in the dark longer than you’ve actually interrogated her,” he pointed out, giving Jack a puzzled look.

“People react differently to complete isolation, some can manage it for days, while others show negative responses after merely hours, and Skye definitely falls in the second category. She might have initially broken under the torture, but by now she is almost ready to do whatever it takes, to answer any question just for some light and human contact.” Jack smirked slightly, the shadows on his face creating an eerie look as he kept studying the young woman in the chair.

“Well, change of plans, right? Now let’s get this over with already, we don’t have a lot of time before her friends swarm the place,” Green noted, urging Jack to hurry.

The mercenary didn’t take his eyes off of Skye as he pulled his knife from its sheath, the blade reflecting the light from the corridor that was shining into the room. The young woman was staring back at him with a terror filled expression, her breathing quickening as realisation began to dawn on her face. Jack actually wondered if she would have started begging for her life right about now, if the duct tape over her mouth hadn’t been rendering her mute.

“You know, I think I could have turned her against her friends, if I had had enough time,” he mused thoughtfully, slowly turning the knife in his hands. “But I guess we’ll never know. Not now that they’re going to rescue her.”

There was a look of confusion on his boss’ face at this point, but it lasted only for a split second, before it turned into complete shock. In that moment, Jack had switched from a loose hold on his knife to a firm grip, turned on his heel and stabbed Green in the leg, not having given him so much as a whiff of a warning. He then proceeded to kick the much larger man’s knees out from underneath him without missing a beat, thereby sending him crashing to the floor.

There was not a single doubt in Jack’s mind that he would be outmatched in an open fight against Green, and so he had needed to make sure not to let it come to that. He was standing behind the Colonel now, who was on his knees, facing Skye, and the mercenary could only assume that the other man’s expression was even more shocked and horrified than hers. There was no way that he had seen this attack coming and Jack wasn’t planning on giving him the chance to find his bearing again, either.

Without hesitation, he pressed the razor-sharp blade of his knife against Green’s throat while his other hand was wrapped around the man’s forehead. He could feel the Colonel’s body tensing under his grip as he forced his head backwards, but at this point it was already too late. Jack cut the man’s now exposed throat in one swift motion, causing a stream of blood to gush from the wound. It ran down the bullet-proof vest Green was wearing and spluttered onto the hard cement floor, accompanied by a gurgling sound coming from the dying man.

Jack took several deep breaths as he held the Colonel in place for a moment, adrenaline coursing through his body. His expression was entirely composed, however, cold even, as he waited for the twitching body to become still. Once it had, he let go of it and watched Trevor Green slump to the ground at Skye’s feet, where he continued to bleed out.

“I _always_ keep my word.”

Jack’s voice was entirely devoid of emotion, reflecting the finality of the situation. He felt no anger at the Colonel, no satisfaction at his victory, other than the relief of having lived through it. He just knew that – for better or worse – he had made his choice and now he would have to deal with the consequences.

When he shifted his focus to Skye, the young woman flinched back in her chair, staring up at him with a panicked expression.

“You know,” he began, his voice calm, not betraying the fact that he had just killed a man, “I could tell you that I’m not going to hurt you anymore. And that it’s only a matter of minutes until your team comes swooping in here like some big damn heroes and saves you, but you don’t hear a word I’m saying anyway, right?”

One hand still holding his knife, Jack laid his free hand gently on Skye’s cheek. The young woman tried to turn away from him, clearly appalled by his touch, but he reached up into her hair and grabbed it, pulling her head back so Skye was forced to look up at him.

“Your time in here might be over now, but don’t think for a moment that that means you’ll be free. No matter what you do, you’ll never get rid of me. I’m inside your head, Skye, and I’m going to stay with you forever.” Now he finally let go of the young woman and despite the fact that she hadn’t heard a single word of his little speech, tears were shining in her eyes as she shrank back into her chair, trembling all over.

A small smirk passed over Jack’s lips as he saw Skye’s traumatised state, knowing that the events of the last few minutes – if nothing else – had cemented the lasting effect he had had on the hacker, even though his work with her had been cut short so abruptly. He turned around to leave now, not sparing another thought to Green’s dead body still on the ground or feeling any sort of remorse over killing him. When he was just outside the door, he looked back at Skye once more.

He could see the fear in her eyes, not just of being locked back up in the dark again, but also of the possibility that should he leave under these – what for her had to be terribly confusing – circumstances, the door in front of her might never open again. Then there was of course the sheer horror of having witnessed the Colonel’s death up close, with his body now lying at her feet, his blood soaking through her shoes.

It wasn’t how Jack had imagined them all to part ways, and yet it felt like a fitting enough way for this job to come to an end. When he addressed Skye once more before finally closing the door to her pitch black cell, he knew that she didn’t even need to hear the words to understand him, as she would be able to read them on his lips all too easily.

“So long, Skye.”

**To be continued...**


	22. It’s Over (Part One)

It hadn’t been long since the Bus had touched down at an airfield near Kansas City and while Agent Coulson and the others were still briefing the last of the support teams that had just arrived, the agents Fitz and Simmons were busy carrying the rest of their equipment out into their respective transports.

Coulson had decided to split up the team for this mission, but not just that. Even the usually inseparable science duo was assigned to different parts of the assault and Leo clearly didn’t like it.

They were almost done packing and Jemma was helping him carry a heavy, about knee-high, cube-shaped box out to the van, while the engineer continued to list reasons why all of this was a very bad idea.

“I mean, you have never been on a dangerous field mission like this before, but I have, and-”

“ _One_ , Fitz, you were on _one_ field mission, so I don’t really think that that makes you an expert on them. And don’t forget, I’ve seen plenty of action myself. I even shot someone in the chest once,” she declared, a rather proud expression on her face. Fitz raised an eyebrow questioningly as they pushed the box into the back of the van, not all that convinced by Simmons’ tough attitude.

“Yeah, but that was Agent Sitwell in the Hub with a night-night gun, so I’m not so sure that that even counts.” Clearly hurt in her pride, the biochemist opened her mouth to make another argument for why she was just as prepared to go out in the field as Fitz, but she needed a moment to come up with anything.

Convinced that he had won this discussion, the engineer crossed his arms in front of his chest and looked at his partner with a self-satisfied expression, but when she finally continued, that was quickly wiped off his face.

“Well, I did jump out of the Bus once. Without a parachute.” But even though she knew that it was a good argument, Simmons immediately regretted bringing this up as she saw the shocked and hurt look on Fitz’s face.

“Yes, and you almost died, so could we please not talk about that right now?”

“Oh, of course, Fitz! I’m so sorry, really. I didn’t even mean to...”, but before she could apologise further, they were suddenly interrupted by Agent Haze, who was approaching the scientists now, her steps quick and purposeful.

“How far are you two with your preparations? Coulson wants to move out in five.” The agent was wearing a bullet-proof vest over her blue blouse, her hair re-tied into a tight knot, and a holster at her side, sporting a standard SHIELD handgun. She was also carrying a second weapon however, a night-night gun attached to her upper thigh, like Agent May was carrying hers.

The two scientists turned around at the interruption, both looking at Haze enthusiastically.

“Well, unless Fitz here wants to pack the other half of the lab, too, then that was it. We’re ready to go,” Simmons answered, earning herself an incredulous look from the engineer.

“You know, it’s called ‘being prepared’, Jemma. These Talos guys, they could come at us with anything, so I have to be ready for _anything_. I didn’t overdo it, alright?”

“If you say so,” Simmons agreed, with an expression that clearly stated otherwise, “but I did see the way you were looking at the microscope.”

“What?”, Fitz asked in return, clearly taken off guard by this observation. “No, that wasn’t even,... I mean, you never know when you...,” but in the end he seemed to give up and just shrugged helplessly. “I didn’t take it, now did I? So can we please just drop this?” Agent Haze let out a good-natured chuckle as she witnessed the two scientists’ interaction, before she nodded and turned halfway around, ready to leave again.

“Okay, I see you got things covered here. Now get your vests and I’ll tell Agent Coulson that we’re ready to move out.”

“Agent Haze, wait!” Fitz suddenly held her back, but as the computer specialist turned around to look at him, the engineer climbed into the back of the van and began searching for something between all the devices he had loaded into it. Still half hidden by all the boxes and strange looking objects, he finally began to explain why he had stopped the agent from leaving.

“Since you monitored Skye, you probably know about all the missions we did in the past few months, including the one in South Ossetia.”

“You mean the mission during which Skye managed to trick me with a simple decoy crawler simulating her usual internet activity while she was actually hacking into SHIELD’s database? Yes, considering the fact that I was almost kicked off her case after that, I think I’ll be remembering that one for a while. But go on.”

Slightly taken aback by that reply, Fitz looked at Agent Haze rather dumbfounded as he finally emerged from the van, a strange looking weapon in his hands.

“Yes, well, Ward and I did manage to take out the Overkill device, but while it was posing a very big threat in its original form, it did turn out to be quite useful at closer range. It can trigger weapons remotely, but if you aim it at a gun, it basically causes it to blow up, making sure that whoever is holding it drops it immediately.

I’ve been trying to replicate it, but so far I only managed to put together this prototype. But while it still has a few kinks I’ll need to work on, I think it really could come in handy on this mission. It does even work through solid objects, but in that case the range is extremely limited.”

He approached Agent Haze and pushed the device, which looked almost alien with all the semicircular tubes running around it, into her grasp.

“Just hold it here and here,” he instructed as he took her hands and placed them properly on the device. “This is the trigger, but you need to hold it for two seconds to allow the micro generator to charge. It makes a noise when it’s done, so you’ll know. But as I said, it’s still a prototype and the one problem I haven’t really worked out yet is the heat emission, so every time you fire, you have to wait at least a minute - better make it two - before you take another shot. Otherwise it will overheat and believe me, you don’t want that.”

Feeling the weapon’s weight in her hands, Agent Haze nodded as she looked at the engineer gratefully.

“Got it. And thank you. I promise I’ll take good care of it.”

“Yeah, you better,” Agent Fitz replied, smiling slightly. “I haven’t even thought of a name yet and I don’t usually give my inventions away before they have a proper name; that way I’m the one who gets to name them.”

“Yes, and we’re still going to stop calling them ‘night-night guns’ eventually, you know?” Simmons suddenly chimed in, giving her partner an almost cocky look. But the engineer wasn’t having it.

“When, Jemma, huh? Tell me, because I don’t really see that happening. Everyone just keeps using my names, and you know why? Because they’re _catchy_ , that’s why.”

Realising that they were done here, Agent Haze nodded once more before finally heading back to Coulson and the others, smiling as she heard the two scientists still bickering behind her.

 

* * *

The SHIELD convoy was speeding down the road at an almost dangerous pace, twelve vehicles in total, heading towards the abandoned factory where Talos was hiding and where they had to be holding Skye.

Given the fact that the young hacker was merely a consultant and not an official SHIELD agent, Coulson did have to call in a lot of favours to get this kind of support for the rescue mission, but he was willing to do whatever it took to bring her home safely, especially after having taken so long to find her.

He, May and Fitz were in the van leading the convoy, as the scientist had insisted on needing that much space for his equipment, while Ward, Haze and Simmons were following directly behind, ready to lead the second angle of the mission.

It was completely quiet in the van except for the occasional chatter coming over the radio, but Coulson wasn’t listening to it, was barely hearing it in fact, as he kept staring ahead, his forehead creased with worry as he couldn’t stop his thoughts from focusing on Skye and the unknown condition she was in.

He had no idea what they were going to find when they rescued her, what state she would be in and, although he tried not to think about this possibility, if she was even still alive.

“Stop worrying, Phil.” Agent May’s voice suddenly disrupted the silence, pulling Coulson out of his thoughts. He looked over at the female agent, slightly surprised at the use of his first name, despite the fact that they were very old friends, but then shrugged a little, his expression almost helpless.

“I can’t. Honestly, I don’t know how.” Her eyes fixed firmly on the road in front of her, her hands on the steering wheel, May did her best to sound as reassuring as possible as she replied.

“Skye is alive, I just know it, and _nothing_ will keep us from freeing her now as long as we stay focused.”

“I _am_ focused,” he assured her, a determined expression replacing the worried look on his face. “How long to the factory?”

“Ten minutes,” May answered, an almost invisible smile tugging at her lips. Coulson nodded briefly, then activated his radio to address the rest of the SHIELD agents.

“Alright, we’re just ten minutes out now. From the satellite images of the area we know that there was an alarm or probably even a defence system installed around the abandoned factory building, so we are going to establish a perimeter just outside the fence to make sure that none of the Talos members manage to escape. Once Agent Fitz has taken care of their defences, Agent May and I will enter through the front door with the rest of Team One. Simultaneously, Agent Ward will be taking Team Two to the remote entrance at the old water pumping station that we discovered on one of the blue prints of the complex.

Locating and freeing Skye is our main objective, of course, but we have allowed Talos to grow unchallenged for far too long. They think they can kidnap a member of a SHIELD team and get away with it, but we’re going to prove them wrong. Today their organisation will cease to exist.” The agent fell silent for a moment, already considering ending his little speech here, but he knew that there was still one point he needed to address, even though he didn’t particularly like it. And so he sighed briefly, before speaking to the other agents in the convoy once more.

“And finally, I want you all to remember that Curtis Tyler, Skye’s kidnapper, is to be taken alive under all circumstances. You’ve all seen his picture, so make sure to get a good look at your target first before shooting. Now, Skye is one of ours, it’s about time to bring her home.”

Coulson deactivated his radio with a soft click, causing Agent May to shake her head, as she glanced in the rear view mirror, looking back at the black car driving behind them.

“I still can’t believe that you let Agent Haze agree to that. That man tortured Skye, for that he deserves to be put down on sight, not to be put under protection.”

Coulson shook his head wearily, understanding May’s frustration, but also knowing that it had been the right call to make.

“Believe me, I don’t like it, either, but it got us the information we needed. I don’t know what you and Ward did to Tyler’s sister back at her house, and I’m not going to ask, but that’s not how I want to deal with prisoners on my plane. At least not when there’s a reasonable alternative. And to be fair, asking for her brother’s life in return for Skye’s location wasn’t an unreasonable demand. I even get it, really. Tyler is a monster, you and I know that, and I think so does Olivia, but he is also still her brother. I don’t have any siblings, but if I had I think I would want to protect them at all costs, too.”

Before Agent May could say anything to that however, Agent Fitz suddenly cleared his throat, looking slightly embarrassed as he felt like his presence had been completely forgotten for the past few minutes.

He was looking up from his laptop, which was currently showing images from the SHIELD satellite directed at them, so he could see the area of the factory and their approach live.

“Yeah, well, before we have to start worrying about whether we shoot the guy or not, I’ll have to get us past those defences first. Though, of course, it would be really quite helpful if I actually knew what they are.”

“You’ll figure it out, Fitz,” May declared optimistically, clearly intending to keep the scientist calm and focused, but the way her fingers were clutching the steering wheel was proving all too clearly that she wasn’t as composed as she pretended to be, either.

“Any idea what we’ll be dealing with, yet?”, Coulson asked, glad to be able to focus on the more imminent problem again.

“Well,” Fitz began, scratching his head uncertainly, “the satellite images only showed them installing something, but afterwards there was nothing visible on the ground, so it can’t be anything big. Hidden guns, maybe, explosives more likely. You know, if I had to make a guess, I’d say that they most likely booby-trapped the entire area inside that fence. I guess if we had a trained monkey, it would be able to find a safe path across, but...”

“Fitz!”, May interrupted the scientist harshly, not really in the mood for one of his monkey-obsessed ramblings. Fitz cringed visibly and was obviously embarrassed as he continued.

“Yeah, sorry. You’re right, we don’t have the time to get a monkey anyway, or to train it, really. And properly trained monkeys aren’t exactly easy to come by, either.” He looked like he might have wanted to say something else, but he fell silent as he finally became aware of Agent May looking at him sternly in the rear view mirror.

The scientist swallowed and took a moment to compose himself, making sure not to mention any more of his slightly less likely ideas as he continued.

“Anyway, I brought the dwarfs and they should be able to detect any hidden explosives or other traps once we’re on site. Disarming them will be a different problem, of course, but I think I already have an idea for that as well.”

 

* * *

 

Team Two had separated from the main part of the convoy before they had reached the factory and now Ward, Haze and Simmons found themselves standing in front of a small flight of stairs leading down to what looked like the door to some sort of bunker, but what was really an old water regulation station which was connected through a tunnel to the main part of the factory.

There was no fence separating them from their goal, but as they had already come across two tripwires on their way here, luckily detected in time by the little flying robot Fitz had given Simmons earlier, none of them expected things to get any easier from here on out.

“Well, I don’t see any wires at the stairs, so I guess that’s something,” Agent Haze pointed out, while still trying to figure out what their next obstacle would be. “Do you think the door is rigged?”

“Most likely, yeah,” Agent Ward replied, his brow furrowed in concentration. “But we can’t really know for sure, unless we open it, and if it is, well… that would also be the last thing we know.”

The three field teams that were accompanying them as backup, one of them assigned to guarding the tunnel entrance once they had made it inside, were staying out of this so far, simply waiting for their next orders. While they were remaining quiet however, Agent Simmons suddenly started rummaging through her backpack until she found what she was looking for, a clear plastic cylinder which contained a rather unimpressive looking sheet of film.

“Is that what I think it is?”, Ward asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise, a grin starting to spread on his lips.

“It’s the magic window, yes. Fitz gave me a few things he thought might be helpful during this mission, because _apparently_ he’s the expert field agent now, but in this case I think it really is just what we need.” She was already about to step forward to attach the device on the door, but Ward held her back, shaking his head.

“Stop, I’ll do it. There might still be other traps installed that even your fancy robot didn’t detect, so I’m not going to let you go down there.”

Before he could reach for the role of plastic in Simmons’ hand though, Agent Haze beat him to it. She grabbed the magic window and quickly walked towards the stairs, not giving anyone the chance to stop her. As her foot touched the first step however, she slowed down considerably, obviously not unaffected by the idea that there might still be some sort of trap installed here she could set off at any moment.

In part to keep her nerves down, but also to fill the tense silence that had fallen over the group, as Ward and Simmons could do nothing but look after her in surprise and slight bewilderment, the agent now began to explain her behaviour, her eyes fixed firmly on the flight of stairs in front of her.

“You know, Jemma, right before we left the airfield, Agent Fitz came to talk to me again, saying that even though he knows you are more than capable, he would still feel better if he knew that someone was looking out for you on this mission, and he thought that Agent Ward had enough responsibility on his shoulders already.

Which, incidentally, is also pretty much exactly what Agent Coulson said to me after we had come up with the plan to split up your team in the first place. Agent May was a bit more brusque about it, when she told me to keep an eye on you like she would keep an eye on Agent Fitz, but I think the nice things were implied.”

By now Agent Haze had made it down to the bottom of the stairs and took a large breath in relief before she began to attach the magic window to the metal door in front of her. She could feel the eyes of the entire team resting on her back, but she didn’t turn around, willing herself to move as little as possible.

“So, as you can see, unless I wanted to antagonise pretty much your entire team, I couldn’t really let you walk down here yourself, could I?” She let out a brief laugh at this, but it ended up sounding more nervous than anything else.

“And as for you, Agent Ward, we would still free Skye no matter what, of course, but I don’t think she would be all too happy if her S.O. gets himself blown to bits just minutes before he can rescue her. She’s going to need you, all of you, when this is over. But,” Haze finished in relief, “as I’m still here, I figure that whatever it is that’s supposed to keep us from going any further, it’s behind this door, not in front of it.”

By now she had managed to attach the film to the metal door and activated it, watching it come to life.

The image the magic window provided was rather blurred, even though there was no movement, but as Agent Haze had positioned it directly beside the door handle, several small objects attached to it on the other side were now visible.

“And that’s an explosive device right there,” she finally declared after a few seconds, sighing, but clearly not surprised.

“How large?”, Ward asked from the top of the stairs, already playing several different tactics in his mind on how to proceed now.

“Hm, that’s hard to tell, really. But going by what I can make out, I’d say it’s big enough to kill whoever is standing in front of that door when it opens.”

“Yes, but will it destroy the entrance?”, Ward asked again, causing Haze to turn and look up at him in confusion.

“No, I don’t think so, but you can’t honestly consider letting anyone open it.”

“No, of course not,” the specialist replied, shaking his head in disbelief, appalled that the other agent would even think this of him. “But I’m sure we can find a way to set it off from out here, from a safe distance.”

“But won’t that tell Talos that we’re here?”, Simmons wondered, but before Ward could say anything, one of the agents from the field team replied instead.

“I think they already know that.” Without elaborating any further, he suddenly fired a single shot, and when the rest of the group followed his line of sight, they became aware of the now useless remains of a camera being attached to one of the trees that were standing only a small distance away from the tunnel entrance.

“Damn it,” Ward grimaced, realising that their surprise attack from two sides clearly wasn’t one any longer. Agent Haze had come back up to the rest of the group by now and was also looking at the camera, worry written all over her face.

“They probably wanted to use this tunnel as their escape route, but by now they’ll know that we have surrounded them. If Trevor Green really is as fanatic as Tyler’s sister said he is, who knows what he’s going to do now. Desperate men are unpredictable enemies. We should hurry.”

“Agreed. That thing you’re carrying, it looks familiar, is that another one of Fitz’s inventions?”, Ward asked, eyeing the device in Haze’s hands curiously, which she had just picked up again after carefully having set it down on the ground earlier.

“Yes, it’s a prototype based on the Overkill device,” the female agent replied, already starting to follow Ward’s line of thought.

“The weapon that can set off anything,” the specialist mused, a grin spreading on his lips.

“Exactly,” Haze agreed, her expression brightening up as well as she turned to look at the door below them.

Once they had removed the magic window and fallen back to a more secure distance, Agent Haze was standing at the front of the group, so she could still see her target even at the downward angle, pursing her lips in concentration. Finally, she pressed the trigger of the prototype weapon, holding it for two seconds like Fitz had instructed her, until there was a brief whirring sound, telling her that the device was done charging. She released the trigger, but as soon as the shot had gone off, she dropped to the ground, covering her head with her arms just as the bomb exploded, sending a cloud of fire and debris their way.

 

* * *

 

Jack had just left Skye’s cell and was wiping the blood off his knife on the side of his pants as he walked down the corridor slowly, thinking about his next move.

At the rate SHIELD had been coming closer, when Raina had warned them of their approach, the agents had to be at the compound by now, which meant that he needed to know exactly where they were, before he could decide on an escape route. That also meant going back to the surveillance room however, even though Jack knew that this was probably the only area of the factory that was still properly staffed by the Talos soldiers, whose leader, Trevor Green, he had just killed.

He cursed inwardly, as he reminded himself that all of this was his own fault, after all. He could have just dropped everything and left, leaving the rest of Talos to fight against SHIELD, buying himself enough time to get away, but that would have also meant to let Skye die, to let Green kill her, and that just wasn’t his style.

He never killed his prisoners, unless that had been the deal from the start, and he barely ever accepted those jobs in the first place. Killing a restrained man – or woman – wasn’t fun, it wasn’t a challenge and just the memory of the excited look on Green’s face as he had offered to make Skye’s death especially painful in an effort to fool his boss, told Jack that he had made the right decision.

He could easily understand the hatred for SHIELD, but he also firmly believed that that couldn’t be an excuse for everything and that it was probably better not to have someone like Green in control of Talos anymore. Not that the organisation would exist for much longer anyway; that much the Clairvoyant had probably been right about.

He had reached his destination by now and Jack braced himself for whatever might happen next, every muscle tense as he stepped forward.

His right hand on his gun in the holster, the other holding his knife, he finally entered the surveillance room, quickly attracting the attention of the remaining three soldiers, who had been watching the monitors and were giving out orders to the rest of the men over the radio.

“Where is the Colonel?” One of them asked, watching Jack in surprise.

The blond man hesitated for a brief moment, but then he decided to just go with the truth, for better or worse.

“He’s dead,” he replied calmly, pulling his gun from its holster and switching off the safety, the grip on his knife tensing.

The soldiers immediately shot up from their seats, but kept their distance, exchanging a quick glance, before the same one as before continued, his hold on his weapon tightening.

“How? What happened?”

Jack watched the three armed men in front of him carefully as he replied, prepared to react at even the smallest movement, the hand with the gun now hanging loosely at his side, but his grip still firm as he half expected to have to defend himself at any moment.

“We had a deal concerning our prisoner, but ‘the Colonel’ decided to break it. Now, he made a mistake by trying to cross me, how about you? There is an entire army of SHIELD agents probably storming this compound as we speak, but if you really think this is the right time and place to try and avenge your leader, be my guest.”

He was standing completely motionless, daring the soldiers to make the first move, but the men looked at each other uncertainly until one of them finally relaxed his stance and lowered the rifle he was carrying.

“I still believe in his fight against SHIELD, but Green never knew how to pick his battles. I’m not going to die for a dead man and we still need to find a way to get out of here, because I sure as hell don’t want to spend the rest of my life in a cell the size of a shoe box.”

“Well, we can definitely agree on that last part, but if I’m supposed to come up with anything, I need to know how the situation is first,” Jack replied, holstering his gun again and stepping closer to the surveillance monitors.

“The SHIELD teams set up a perimeter around the fence and at least for the moment the explosives are holding them back. But they already managed to take out the snipers we had in position to cover the front of the building, and it looks like they’re going to make a move on the front gate soon. And they also found the tunnel. They already have a team inside there, and they keep taking out our surveillance as they move further towards the factory.”

Jack closed his eyes for a moment and sighed deeply in frustration, knowing that basically all of their exit strategies were busted. Which meant that essentially they were screwed.

He also knew however, that whatever happened, there was no way that he was going to end up as SHIELD’s prisoner, locked away in the Fridge for the next thirty years, if they didn’t just decide to lose the key to his cell completely. No, he would rather die than spend the rest of his days rotting in a room the size of a closet, so there was only one thing to do, really, one strategy left to continue.

“You know, they aren’t just here for Skye. They’re here to take out every single one of us, so I say we’ll defend us accordingly. Forget about destroying our files and whatever else Green told you to do and clear out the armoury. Make sure everyone of our men is armed to the teeth and then we’ll let them come. We’ll throw everything we have at SHIELD; we know this place better than they do and if they want a fight, they can have it.”

 

* * *

 

Ward and his team had been making their way down the tunnel for a few minutes now, but so far they hadn’t come upon any resistance they hadn’t been able to handle. Talos’ soldiers had attacked them twice, the first time leading to an intense fire fight, which had ultimately ended in favour of the SHIELD team, but the second time Agent Haze had managed by chance to trigger a hand grenade one of their enemies had been carrying with the prototype Overkill device, ending the confrontation instantaneously.

The risk of having the weapon overheat only really allowed her to use it once, maybe twice in a fight, so she had to make her shots count. The rest of the time she simply relied on her gun, just like the others, but she always made sure to keep Simmons covered the best she could.

The scientist was actually carrying a weapon herself, a night-night gun, but only because Coulson and the rest of the team had insisted on it. It was only meant for emergencies and even though she was holding onto it tightly, she wasn’t actually partaking in the assault actively.

Ward and two members of the field team had just cleared the next corner, giving the signal to move on, when suddenly the ground began to vibrate for a few seconds and they could hear what sounded like thunder in the distance.

“What was that?”, Agent Simmons asked, her expression anxious as she looked from one member of her team to the next.

“No idea, but whatever it was, it didn’t sound good,” Ward replied before activating his radio. He was clearly worried, but knew better than to show it openly.

“Coulson? Coulson, are you there?” For a few seconds there was nothing but static coming over the radio, but finally, after what felt like an eternity, their team’s leader answered.

“Yes, I’m here. We’re all fine, don’t worry.”

“Then what the hell just happened? Felt like an earthquake or something.”

“Well, we just took out their defences at the front gate. All of them.” The smile on the agent’s lips was even audible over the radio, but before Coulson could say anything else, they suddenly heard Fitz’s excited voice, as the scientist was obviously too ecstatic to keep quiet any longer.

“Ward, you should have seen it! It was amazing! I had built a second weapon based on the Overkill device, but this one worked more like a bomb, really, triggering everything in a huge radius. We strapped it to one of the cars and rigged it to drive straight into the mined area and boom! There was this giant explosion and a fireball going up into the sky, and-”

“And if you had kept your head down, like I told you, then that piece of debris wouldn’t have scraped your temple,” Agent May suddenly chimed in, her voice stern as she was reprimanding the younger agent.

That remark caught Simmons’ attention immediately, of course, and she instantly activated her radio, worry colouring her voice.

“Oh no, Fitz, did you get hurt? Did someone check the wound, because you know, head injuries definitely aren’t to be trifled with.”

“It’s just a scratch, really, and don’t worry, I don’t mean that in the tough-guy way like Ward would use that phrase, refusing to show any weakness even though he can hardly stand anymore. It’s barely even bleeding.” He was completely serious as he tried to reassure his best friend and lab partner, knowing how worried she tended to get over him, but suddenly his expression and the tone of his voice lightened up noticeably, as a thought suddenly occurred to him.

“But, you know, maybe it will still leave a scar. Girls still like guys with scars, right, because they just have to be impressed, when I tell them that I have this one from an injury I suffered on a dangerous mission and-”

“And unless you want to add another injury to it, I suggest you be quiet now and pack up your things, because we’re going in,” May cut him short again harshly, but her voice became a lot softer as she continued. “Simmons, Fitz is fine, there’s no need to worry. The wound is a superficial scratch, nothing more. We’re going to breach the front door now, so radio silence for a while, but we’ll keep you updated if we find anything.”

“Understood. Good luck,” Ward answered her, looking at the rest of his team to make sure they were all ready to head deeper into their enemies’ base as well. “We’ll meet you inside.”

**To be continued...**  


	23. It’s Over (Part Two)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I originally had the rest of the rescue in just one chapter, but due to its immense length (over 12k word), I finally decided to split it up after all, so “It’s Over” has three parts in total now. The rest will be up tomorrow though, so don't worry, you won't have to wait much longer. :)

They had made it into the office section of the factory by now without having faced a lot of resistance, but Coulson and the rest of his team knew better than to lower their guard for even a second. They all remained fully alert as they checked the different rooms, which had formerly housed the administrative part of the business, but aside from the director’s office itself, none of them seemed to have been used in a very long time.

Even the conservatively, yet nicely furnished room had been cleared out before their arrival though, and only the dust free desk and a recently used ashtray indicated that anyone had been here lately.

Coulson was standing next to the expensive looking desk now, his fingers tracing over the wooded surface, as he took a moment to imagine its last occupant sitting here, smoking absentmindedly as he was making plans for Skye’s abduction.

His jaw clenched in anger for a moment as he thought of the young woman, but the agent pulled himself together again immediately, not letting himself be distracted by his own fear and guilt.

“Fitz, I know the factory is huge, but any idea yet where they’re keeping Skye?” He turned around to the scientist, who was standing in the doorway, looking at his tablet, which was controlling the dwarfs, but obviously his readings weren’t providing the answer Coulson was looking for.

“No, sorry. There’s a lot of space here on the ground floor to hide her, could take us hours clearing all of it and then we haven’t even touched the basement levels yet. I’m still trying to get into Talos’ surveillance system, but with the encryption they’re using, I’d have to find one of their servers to gain access.”

Coulson sighed in response to the disappointing news, but before he could even start thinking about where he would lead his team next, Agent May suddenly called his name from the area near the front desk.

“Coulson, you should have a look at this.”

He immediately started in her direction and found the female agent indicating the door to the stairwell leading to the basement levels.

“Seems like the lock was busted. And I’d say it’s only been that way a few days at most.”

“Maybe Trevor Green and his guys broke it when they moved into this place,” Coulson mused, trying to come up with an explanation, but May shook her head negative.

“No, I don’t think so. It’s been broken from the inside and then there’s… this,” she finished quietly, stepping aside so Coulson could see through the doorway and into the stairwell itself, causing him to stop dead in his tracks as he followed her line of sight.

There was blood on the floor and lots of it. The agent looked down at it, a sombre expression on his face, but while he remained silent, May began to tell her own theory of what might have happened here earlier at some point.

“I think that whoever broke this lock wasn’t trying to get in, they were trying to get out, but then something obviously happened that caused this,” she finished, indicating the blood on the floor.

“You think... you think this is Skye’s blood?”, Agent Fitz, who had followed Coulson, suddenly asked, alerting the other two agents to his presence.

May sighed, but shook her head as she answered wearily.

“I don’t know, Fitz, but even if it is, this might look like a lot of blood, but it is in no way enough to suggest any kind of fatal injury. Skye might be hurt, but we don’t know how badly, so let’s not jump to conclusions, alright?”

Even though he was still staring at the red stains on the floor, the scientist finally nodded, not even noticing that May wasn’t looking at him, but rather at Coulson, as she quietly repeated her question.

“Alright?” Returning her gaze, her C.O. nodded as well, pulling himself away from his own dark thoughts, focusing back on the task at hand.

“May is right. And while the idea that Skye could be hurt certainly isn’t very reassuring, it at least gives us an idea where to look for her. There are still a lot of areas here on the ground floor where Skye could be held, but if she came up the stairs when she tried to escape, they must be holding her somewhere in one of the basement levels. Ward’s team is on the first level, so I suggest we go straight down to the second, making sure we cover as much ground as possible.”

As nobody objected, the group quickly began their descent down the stairs, Fitz’s dwarfs leading the way with May and Coulson following directly behind. They all stayed as quiet as possible, knowing that their enemies were probably already expecting them, which made Fitz’s sudden harsh whisper even more startling.

“Wait, stop!”, he pressed out, as he grabbed May by the shoulder reflexively. He immediately let go of her again once the agent turned around to him, slightly embarrassed, but then flipped his tablet around so that she and Coulson could see the display, while pointing at two small red dots that had just become visible. He repeated the gesture once more, the look in his eyes urgent, then pointed down the stairs to indicate that the two men the dots were obviously representing were somewhere below them.

Agent May looked at the display with slightly raised eyebrows, then held up two fingers and silently mouthed the word “two” to Fitz to confirm the number. As the scientist nodded, the agent actually smiled a little and holstered her weapon, before giving Coulson a brief look to let him know what she was planning. They didn’t exchange a single word, but after a second her C.O. nodded and May leaned slightly towards the railing to see how far down the stairs went. Luckily, the second basement level was the deepest one and they had just passed the first one, meaning that they weren’t very high up anymore.

Knowing that, Agent May didn’t hesitate any longer and with one hand on the railing, she suddenly jumped above it, dropping straight down to the floor below. The two Talos soldiers, who had been waiting for them to come down the stairs, didn’t even know what had hit them, as the female agent was suddenly beside them, disarming and knocking them out in less than five seconds.

“Clear!” She finally called out to the rest of her team, who followed her immediately.

“Nice work,” Coulson remarked, as he glanced down at the unconscious men, a smile on his lips.

“But I bet the rest of them won’t make it this easy for me to take them out,” May replied matter-of-factly, pulling out her gun again and getting ready to head out of the door of the stairwell to search the rest of the basement level for Skye.

 

* * *

 

“1…2…,” Ward looked over at Agent Haze, as she was slowly counting up, preparing himself for the explosion that was about to go off. He and the rest of the team were pressed against the wall behind the last corner in the tunnel before they reached the main part of the factory, but to get in there, they had to get past one more door, which, as they had already discovered, was rigged in the same way as the one to the outside had been.

Agent Haze was standing in position, looking down the long corridor towards the exit, the handheld Overkill device pointing straight at her target. She was fully concentrated and barely moving, only tilting her head slowly a few inches to look over at Ward to make sure that everyone was ready. The agent nodded briefly in return, giving her the go ahead.

“...3!” She finally released the trigger of the charged weapon, allowing it to fire, and the instant the energy burst went off, she immediately pressed herself flat against the wall next to Ward, covering her ears, but even though they were in cover and a considerable distance away from the target, they could still feel the force of the blast as the door went up in a fiery explosion.

“Is everyone okay?” Ward asked after a few moments, when the ringing in his ears had mostly subsided again, looking at Simmons, Haze and the units supporting them on this mission. He received a round of nods and brief affirmations, causing him to relax a little again.

“Got to hand it to Fitz,” the agent suddenly declared, completely honest, “he might tend to come off as a mad scientist sometimes, but he also does come up with a lot of good stuff.”

“Well, that’s exactly what we’ve been telling you, Agent Ward. You specialists always think you go in the field alone, but the truth is that you rely on our scientific research a lot more than you like to admit,” Simmons replied pointedly, but even though discussions like this had tended to turn into heated arguments in the past, the quick progress they were making had Ward in a good mood and so he just smiled a little and nodded.

“Alright, alright, I got it. To be honest, if Fitz manages to build a less bulky version of that thing, I’ll be taking it on every mission from now on.” His expression quickly became serious again though, as he fastened his hold on his automatic assault rifle, before stepping around the corner and looking down the rest of the tunnel. Most of the smoke and debris had settled by now, leaving a clear view of the damage caused by the explosion.

“But for now I think I’ll stick to this,” he said as he kept his weapon aiming steadily ahead and began to move forward, motioning for the rest of the team to follow him. The heavily armed members of the support teams fell in line right beside Ward, while Simmons and Haze followed behind, making sure to stay focused and alert as they could be certain that their arrival had not gone unnoticed.

 

* * *

 

May, Coulson and three agents of the field team were the first through the door and they kept their guns ready to defend themselves, but they had not anticipated the amount of resistance they were now facing. At least fifteen armed men were standing against them at the other end of the large hall, all of them without the slightest bit of sympathy for SHIELD and eager to bring the team down.

In the middle of the hall was a huge machine, starting not far from the door and running almost the entire length of the room, pretty much dividing it into two parts. As the agents had come out on its short side however, the cover it could provide to them was only very limited. Seeing as they had been too far into the room to head back to the door when the shooting started though, they didn’t have another choice but to head forward, pressing themselves against the bulky metal frame to escape the bullets.

One of the members of their support team didn’t make it in time, though. Coulson saw him getting shot and hitting the ground, but as he couldn’t reach the man without getting injured himself, he had no way of knowing whether he was still alive or not. One of the remaining two agents that were now crouching next to them had been shot in the shoulder, but he insisted that the wound wasn’t deep, so Coulson let him be.

Instead he looked back to the door to the stairwell from where they had just come and where Fitz and the rest of the support team were still in position, but even their efforts to take out their enemies were futile, given the sheer amount of shooters that were standing against them.

“Any ideas?”, Agent May finally asked, and even though most people wouldn’t have noticed it, Coulson could clearly hear the concern colouring her voice, giving him the only proof he would have needed to know that they really were in a desperate situation.

“To be honest, I think we’re gonna need some help with this.”

 

* * *

 

When they had already made it most of the way to the end of the tunnel, Ward suddenly gave a sign and he and three of the other agents pulled out small cylindrical objects, which they threw ahead of them into the area right at the tunnel exit. They immediately started emitting a cloud of smoke and gas, some of it a mixture of grey and yellow, the rest a deeper ochre colour. The entire SHIELD team quickly pulled gas masks over their faces, as they continued on their way forward.

None of them was making a sound as they came closer to the exit, the location completely obscured by the smoke by now. From the blueprints that Simmons had on the tablet she was carrying with her, they knew the layout of the room they were going to come out in and were aware of the fact that their enemies were in a perfect position to pin them down and stop their attack before it had even really begun, meaning that they had to act quickly and decisively if they even wanted to stand a chance.

As the gas continued to spread, they could suddenly hear noises coming from beyond the wall it was forming. There were coughs and frantic shouts to fall back, then the sound of a body slumping to the floor, followed by angry curses and then an order that made the hair on Ward’s neck stand on edge.

“Just shoot already!” His team had scattered as far as possible to not present an easy target, but he knew that if the Talos soldiers were to open fire even blindly, they were bound to hit at least some of them.

Reacting quickly, Ward pulled out a flash grenade from his pocket and threw it in the direction of his enemies’ position, just as the first shots echoed through the air. The smoke actually protected him and the rest of his team from most of the bright light, but their enemies were effectively blinded the instant the flash grenade went off, meaning that this was the moment to attack.

Finally leaving the obscuring cloud of gas, Ward quickly assessed the situation in front of him. He found himself only a few feet away from an unconscious body on the ground, one of the Talos soldiers, who had obviously underestimated the potency of the knockout gas they were using, while he could instantly spot four more of them, who were just temporarily disoriented by the grenade.

He opened fire just as the rest of his team came into view and while they were moving towards the closest available cover, they managed to take out several of their enemies within seconds. Looking around, Ward spotted Simmons and Haze bringing up the rear of their team, both of them appearing to be completely unharmed, much to his relief. But as he looked around once more, he suddenly noticed that one member of their support team seemed to be missing.

He quickly signalled to the others to cover him, before heading back into the smoke where he soon found the man on the ground, blood running from a gunshot wound in his thigh. Ward knew that they were concealed from view, but that they could still be hit by a stray bullet at any moment, so he hurried to help the agent to his feet and to half support, half carry him to cover.

“Thank you!”, the injured man pressed out in pain as he leaned back, but Ward only had time for a quick nod in reply before he continued to return fire at their attackers.

Luckily it wasn’t long after this until the last of their enemies were taken down and the hall was finally secure. While Ward, Haze and the support team made sure that the Talos soldiers, who had merely been knocked out or injured, were restrained, Simmons went over to treat the wounded agent before he could lose too much blood.

“Agent Ward,” Haze suddenly called out to get his attention. As he turned around to her, she simply pointed at one of the corners and when he looked over there, he realised that another surveillance camera was staring back at him.

“I hope you enjoyed the show, because we’ll be coming for the rest of you, too,“ he declared coldly before destroying the device with a single shot.

Then he went over to Simmons to see how far she was with treating the injured SHIELD agent.

“How bad is it?”, he asked just as the scientist had finished patching up the leg wound provisionally, but her expression was grim as she turned around to him.

“He’ll live, but there is no way that he can go on with an injury like that. It needs to be treated properly, so I suggest you send one of the others with him to help him get back out through the tunnel.”

Ward looked down at the wounded agent, his brow furrowed slightly. He knew that Jemma was right and that he didn’t really have any other choice, either, but that didn’t mean that he had to like it. To have his team two men short, after only clearing the first room wasn’t exactly things going according to plan. But as it obviously couldn’t be helped, he gave the appropriate orders and watched the two men of the field team start their slow retreat back the way they had come, the injured agent being supported by his team mate, so he could at least walk.

The others had used the short delay to check their weapons and ammunition, but now Ward signalled to them that they were moving forward again. He could only hope that the rest of the mission would go more smoothly.

 

* * *

 

Jack’s hand clenched into a fist, as he watched one of the camera feeds on the monitor in front of him go dark, after one of the SHIELD agents had shot the surveillance camera. They still had the assault team, which had entered through the front of the building, pinned down here on the second basement level, but the other one had already taken down all of the men he had sent against them. His expression grim, he finally turned around and headed towards the door of the surveillance room, pulling his gun from its holster and checking the magazine as he walked.

“I’ll go up there,” he told the three Talos soldiers, who were still watching the monitors, trying to coordinate their resistance. “Keep an eye on the second SHIELD team. If they break through and it looks like they’re coming here, you should disable the system. I don’t want them using our own surveillance cameras against us.” The guards nodded in reply, but one of them called out to Jack, stopping him before he could leave the room.

“We’re gonna hold out here as long as we can, but just a bit of advice. When any of the others ask where the Colonel is – and they will ask – _don’t_ tell them he’s dead and especially not that you killed him. I mean, yeah, we decided to look past that, given the circumstances, but you know how almost fanatically loyal some of the men are to the Colonel, especially those who have been following him for years. If they knew what you did, I guess a lot of them would rather shoot you than the SHIELD agents if they’re given the option.”

Jack nodded in agreement, chuckling slightly, obviously amused by the precarious situation he had found himself in.

“Yeah, I’ll keep that in mind.” Then he finally left, heading towards the closest stairwell to coordinate the fight against SHIELD on the first basement level.

It wasn’t long until he had gathered up most of the Talos soldiers left on this floor and now they were in position to stop the SHIELD team that was heading towards them. He threw a quick glance at the men around him and realised how good the advice of the guard had actually been. Some of these soldiers had been working with Trevor Green for almost a decade and if they found out that he had slit the man’s throat not an hour ago, his end surely wouldn’t be as quick and relatively painless. However, they had no idea of what had happened and as they still had a common enemy, Jack didn’t have any problem working with them.

His eyes went once more to the man directly at the entrance to the hallway, where they were expecting the SHIELD team. He had almost laughed out loud earlier, when he had seen what the soldier had found at the armoury, but the man’s simple reply had been that he had been ordered to ‘arm himself to the teeth’, which was exactly what he had done. Jack was just amazed that they had even had a rocket launcher in the first place.

* * *

“Team Leader 3, do you copy?”, Coulson repeated into his radio, after the bullets had drowned out his first attempt to reach the leader of the team that was guarding the perimeter outside.

“Yes, sir, loud and clear,” finally came the answer, and the agent couldn’t suppress a sigh of relief.

“You can’t imagine how good it is to hear that. Now, as you can maybe already guess by the amount of gunfire here, we’re having a slight problem with the resistance Talos is putting up. I know that this means you’ll have to give up part of the perimeter around the factory, but we definitely need more men down here. I want you to send two more units in so we can get past their defences.”

“Well, now with the air support, I could send you three units easily,” the agent outside the compound answered light-heartedly, causing Coulson to exchange a surprised glance with Agent May, but the specialist looked just as perplexed as he did.

“Air support? What air support?”, he asked suspiciously.

“The two helicopters that are covering the area now, of course. They’ll make sure none of those fanatics get away and they might come in handy should we have need to evacuate any of the wounded.” Coulson’s chest tightened at the answer, as this was definitely not part of his attack strategy.

“As good as that sounds,” he finally replied, trying not to let his fear show too much, “I didn’t get us any helicopters, so where the hell did they come from?” The question was almost angry, as Coulson was already starting to suspect some kind of trap, but the team leader’s answer finally managed to calm his worries.

“Well, according to one of the pilots, they’re courtesy of Agent Hand. Apparently she heard that you were going after one of your team and she said that she still owed you an extraction. I guess you know what that means.”

Breathing a sigh of relief, Coulson let his head drop back against the machine behind him, almost forgetting his still dangerous situation for the moment.

“Yes, yes I actually do. Tell them ‘thank you’ from me, will you? Now send those units in immediately, as many men as you can spare and we’ll do our best to hold out until they get down here.”

“Consider them on their way,” the man replied, already hurrying to organise the backup.

After the radio had went silent again, Coulson took a moment to think about what he had just found out.

“Huh,” he mused quietly, briefly glancing over at May before continuing. “Guess I’ll have to put Agent Hand back on my Christmas list after all.”

“Well that and I’d say you should send her a fruit basket,” the female agent replied completely deadpanned until she finally smiled slightly, prompting a wide grin from Coulson. Then they both flinched however, as the sound of a bullet ricocheting off the metal not far above them reminded them harshly of their situation once more.

“If we get out of here that is, of course,” May added solemnly, tightening the hold on her gun without realising.

 

* * *

Ward’s team had been making good progress so far, but he didn’t like the route they were taking now. The corridor through which they were currently heading was simply too narrow and made them a too easy target. But it was also the only available route and so he had his weapon ready, prepared for a possible ambush at any moment.

When he finally saw the movement ahead, he already expected another shootout, but what he had not seen coming was the rocket launcher one of the Talos soldiers was carrying and which he was now bringing into position.

Ward’s heart stopped for a moment, the next few seconds already playing out in his mind. If the projectile actually hit them, that was it, they were dead. In fact, it didn’t even need to hit them directly, just their proximity and the blast would easily do the rest. But he hadn’t come this far to die now and so he fired without hesitation, actually managing to hit the man holding the launcher.

One of his companions hurried to lift the weapon up again however and Ward’s eyes frantically looked over at the rest of the team, trying to come up with a different solution.

That was when he finally noticed Agent Haze, who had now come up beside him, the Overkill device in her hand charged up and ready to fire. She exchanged a quick glance with Ward before taking careful aim and shooting.

She had stopped breathing, her eyes narrowed as the shot went off, but they widened in shock again quickly as she realised that she had missed.

“No!”, she mouthed silently and Ward cringed, as he followed her line of sight. Their enemies were making a better effort to stay in cover now, so it was difficult for him to get another clear shot.

Following his instincts, he reached out to Haze, demanding the device.

“Here, let me try.”

“It has to cool off first, or it will overheat,” the agent replied weakly, even though she knew exactly how ridiculous she sounded under the circumstances.

“We’ll all overheat if we don’t take that thing down, so give it to me,” he repeated his demand, and finally Haze complied, handing the device over.

Ward exhaled slowly as he pressed the trigger, letting the device charge up, watching worriedly how the Talos soldier at the other end of the tunnel was getting ready to shoot as well. After what felt like an eternity, the Overkill device emitted a soft noise, indicating that it was ready and Ward released the trigger, hoping that it wasn’t too late.

**To be continued…**


	24. It’s Over (Part Three)

There was no sound around him except for the incessant ringing in his ears, like the entire world had been put on mute. Smoke filled the air and the sharp smell of something burning, but the only thing he could see right now was the grey cement floor on which he was lying face down and the few red drops of blood that seemed to be trickling down from his own forehead.

He lay still for a few more seconds, but then finally began to push himself up with a groan, noticing with relief that his hands and fingers were still there, even though slightly burnt after he had used them to shield his face from the explosion. His injuries didn’t seem particularly serious though, so instead he focused again on getting back to his feet. So far he had made it to his hands and knees and at the same time his hearing was starting to come back slowly.

He could hear moans and cries of pain around him, but he knew that he wasn’t exactly in a position to help anyone right now. First he had to pull himself together again. But before he could do anything else, before he could even manage to stand on his own again, someone suddenly pulled him up by his jacket violently and he was slammed against the wall, the barrel of a gun being pushed in his face angrily.

“Where is she? What have you done to Skye?”

Skye. The name finally got his attention and pulled Jack out of the woozy state he had been in ever since he had been caught in the misfired explosion. He took a closer look at the man in front of him, pale skin and dark hair, and quickly realised that he had seen him before.

He was the SHIELD agent, who had been on the mission with Skye before he had kidnapped her.

A faint grin appeared on Jack’s lips as he remembered the agent sitting at a café, waiting for the long deceased Dr. O’Leary to show up, while he and his men had abducted Skye from the hotel room where she had set up base, without her partner suspecting a thing.

“Why should I tell you, Agent Ward?”, he asked, but if his opponent was surprised that he knew his name, he didn’t show.

“Because if you know who I am, then maybe you also know what I’ll be willing to do to you if you don’t tell me where Skye is right now.”

“Well, after I’ve heard so much about you for the past few days, I think I do actually have an idea what you’re capable of. Skye talked so much about you, after all. In fact, you were the first one of your team she gave up once I had broken her resistance. Once I had broken _her_.” He knew the blow was coming before Ward had even moved a muscle, but the impact of the gun against his temple was still extremely painful and rattled Jack’s brain once more just as the world had finally come completely into focus again.

He swayed for a moment, but Ward pushed him back against the wall and Jack used these few seconds to look around him and get a better overview of the situation.

Obviously not all of the Talos soldiers had survived the explosion. There didn’t seem to be much left of the man, who had been holding the rocket launcher and those closest to him, but Jack counted two more dead bodies and a few injured. A young woman with dark blond hair, who seemed incredibly out of place here among all the soldiers, was treating one of the men not far from him at the moment and Jack immediately noticed her gun that she had put back into her holster to have her hands free. It would be extremely easy for him to grab, but of course he would have to get closer to her first without Agent Ward shooting him in the head at a wrong movement.

However, as Jack also realised, he wasn’t the only one, who had been lucky enough to survive the explosion pretty much unscathed. Five of Talos’ men were several meters across from him, down on their knees and guarded by two of the heavily armed SHIELD agents that seemed to be supporting Coulson’s team on this mission. A third had started restraining them one by one with zip ties, but if they were to suddenly decide to fight back, they could surely create just the distraction that Jack needed to get away himself.

The only flaw in that plan, as he quickly recognised, was just the fact that none of the men seemed to have any intention of fighting against the SHIELD agents any time soon. Even though none of them had been seriously injured by the explosion, they were most likely still rattled by the blast and had accepted that the only way to survive this was to surrender.

Jack however still wasn’t willing to give up. He had been in worse situations before and so far he had always managed to get away. And as far as he was concerned, that was still the plan. Either that, or...

His eyes shifted to Agent Ward in front of him and then back to the Talos soldiers as an idea suddenly hit him. He thought back to the warning the guard in the surveillance room had given him earlier and now he knew exactly how to create the distraction he needed. It was a desperate plan alright, but also the only one he could come up with under the circumstances.

“You don’t want me to ask you again; now where is Skye?” Agent Ward was getting impatient and his grip on his gun tightened as he kept staring at Jack angrily. He didn’t like the look on his face and even though the blond man was obviously still suffering from the after effects of being so close to an explosion, Ward didn’t underestimate him for a second.

“You keep asking about the girl, but don’t you care at all about the guy who’s responsible for all of this, who ordered her kidnapping in the first place?”

Ward’s brow furrowed in confusion at Jack’s answer. Catching Trevor Green was of course one of the goals of this mission, but finding and rescuing Skye was the first and most important one and he was sure that Jack was aware of that, too. So why was he bringing up Green anyway? Before Ward had the opportunity to say anything though, the mercenary already continued.

“Well, in case you were worrying about catching the Colonel, don’t bother, I saved you the trouble. He’s dead.”

“Why are you telling me this?”, Ward asked, now completely bewildered, but then he suddenly noticed that something was happening behind him. And judging from the growing grin on Jack’s face, it wasn’t anything good.

“You see, that’s the thing, I’m _not_ telling _you_ ,” Jack almost whispered, so only Ward would hear him, but before the agent had the chance to answer, one of the Talos soldiers behind him suddenly called out, his voice loud and angry.

“What did you do, you bastard?”

“What do you think, idiot? I killed him, of course,” Jack replied coldly, not a single trace of remorse in his features. “I slit his throat like a pig and watched him bleed to death at my feet.”

For a split second the atmosphere in the room was so tense that Ward felt like he couldn’t breathe. He didn’t dare to turn his back on Jack, knowing that he was going to use any opportunity he could get to escape, but at the same time he knew that the situation behind him was getting out of hand.

He could hear the struggle of the Talos soldiers against the other SHIELD agents and while for a brief moment he was still hoping that they could get it under control, that hope was shattered the instant he heard the same man as before break out into an angry roar. The sound of bodies hitting the floor echoed from the walls and just as Ward was turning around slightly to look behind him, he was suddenly tackled and pushed to the ground as well, even though he was obviously not the main target.

The man who had caused all of this however, had also seen the attack on him coming and had been quick enough to evade it. Jack had moved out of the way towards his left and now found himself closer to the injured members of Talos, who hadn’t noticed anything of the commotion. It was the woman treating them however, who he had really been heading towards and so he suddenly pulled Agent Simmons up from her kneeling position next to one of the wounded men, taking the gun from her holster in the process and aiming it at the other agents, while he was using her as his shield.

The man who had tackled Ward was getting back to his feet at this moment and turned towards Jack angrily, but the blond man didn’t give him a second chance to attack him. Instead he shot him in the chest without hesitation, frowning slightly as he noticed the lack of blood, as his would-be attacker dropped to the floor. The mercenary took a closer look at the weapon in his hand, quickly figuring out that it had to be one of the stun guns Skye had mentioned during her interrogation.

Agent Ward himself was getting back up now, too, but he quickly headed into cover, as he realised that he wouldn’t have a clear shot at his opponent while he was holding Simmons and was otherwise presenting an all too easy target himself.

Of the SHIELD agents in the heavy combat gear only one was still conscious and he was caught up in trying to restrain the two remaining Talos soldiers, leaving only Agent Haze to face Jack directly, as he started to back away slowly in the direction where he knew the closest stairwell was.

“Tyler, let her go!”, she ordered calmly, though he could hear the strain in her voice all too clearly.

“Ah, I see, you really did your homework,” he commented on the fact that she knew his real name, but didn’t show any inclination to let go of the young woman he was still pressing against him.

By now Simmons was petrified with fear, but she kept her eyes fixed on Agent Haze, who was looking back at her as reassuringly as she could.

“Yes, and you have no idea how well. Now let her go and surrender, or do you really still think you’ll be able to escape?”, the blond agent asked, trying to convince her opponent that he had no other option left.

“Well, you know what they say, it’s not over till it’s over, right?”, Jack replied stubbornly, his eyes fixating Haze with a piercing glare.

At that moment, Agent Ward suddenly moved out of cover again and towards the mercenary, but instead of trying to shoot him, Jack forcefully pushed Agent Simmons forward in his direction, causing her to stumble and nearly fall, had the specialist not caught her at the last second.

That brief distraction was all that Jack had needed and before Ward could react, he was out of sight, making his way to the stairwell not far from their position.

He knew that he could either head up or down, but as he quickly thought about his options, Jack realised that neither of them sounded particularly promising. Up seemed to be the logical choice if he wanted to try to escape, but as far as he knew, there were no Talos soldiers left on the ground floor and SHIELD still had the place surrounded, leaving him without backup and unable to escape.

Going downstairs was of course contradictory to his main goal to get away, but Jack had to admit that he wasn’t going to get past SHIELD on his own, and the last time he had checked, there had still been a large number of Talos’ men down on the second basement level. Maybe he would be able to form a solid resistance against the intruders if he managed to gather the remaining Talos members in one place, rather than go on on his own.

As Jack entered the stairwell however, and the brief impulse to try his luck upstairs came back, he suddenly heard voices coming from above him, instantly destroying that option. Those men weren’t Talos, they were SHIELD, which meant that they had control of an even bigger part of the factory than he had thought so far.

He quickly hurried down the stairs towards the lower level without alerting the agents to his presence, but still aware that at least Agent Ward had to be following him closely. But to his relief, he found himself met with two familiar faces as he burst through the door into the second basement level.

The two guards quickly lowered their weapons as they recognised him, obviously relieved to see him.

“How’s the situation?”, one of them asked, sounding almost desperate to get an update on what was happening. “No-one has seen the Colonel and we haven’t received any orders here since they told us SHIELD was attacking. What’s happening?”

Jack looked at the men for a split second before deciding how to answer them. He needed them to keep guarding this door, to at least slow down Agent Ward and any other SHIELD agents that might come down here, if he wanted to have even a chance to get away, but they would hardly be willing to do that if they knew the truth.

“The Colonel’s trying to coordinate our escape right now and he sent me down here to see how we’re doing on this level. I need to know where the most of our men are holding position right now, but I think I’ve been followed. At least one SHIELD agent should be coming down here any minute, and I need you two to stop him for me.”

Almost too eager to follow his orders, one of the men pointed Jack in the direction where he knew most of the fighting had taken place earlier, while promising to take care of whoever was following him. The mercenary quickly thanked both of them and then continued on his way, not wanting to waste the head start he had.

However, as he came closer to the spot where their main position had been to hold back Coulson’s part of the attack, it wasn’t the sound of fighting that Jack could hear. He was walking through one of the long corridors of the factory, as there was a weird scuffling noise coming from ahead of him. It took him a moment to finally realise that he was looking at one of Talos’ soldiers, who was slowly coming towards him, dragging one of his legs behind him, blood running down from what appeared to be a gunshot wound.

The man stopped as he became aware of Jack, the look on his face one of defeat.

“Don’t go that way. SHIELD’s controlling everything back there.”

“What about our men?”, Jack asked even though he already knew the answer.

“Most of them have been arrested by now, I think only a few are still trying to hide in the factory. As far as I know, no-one’s heard from the Colonel, but I guess that means that he has been captured already, too. Otherwise he would have led our defences, right?”, the Talos soldier asked, but went on without waiting for an answer.

“At first it seemed that we could hold the place and take out the teams SHIELD had sent in, but then they brought in reinforcements and now they’ve already overrun most of our positions. And apparently they’ve got helicopters outside by now, too, so it looks like our chances to get away are pretty much zero.” He sighed deeply before continuing, his expression devastated while Jack’s face remained almost emotionless.

“They shot me and I tried to run, but I don’t think I’ll get very far like this. I don’t like it, but I’m afraid we’re gonna have to surrender. I mean, what else is there left to do?”

Jack’s expression hardened, as he looked at the soldier, the full extent of what he had just heard hitting him.

“Just one more thing,” he answered cryptically, extending his hand in a demanding gesture. “Give me your weapon. I lost mine and now I only have one of their stun guns.”

The soldier looked at him almost incredulously, not showing any inclination to comply with Jack’s request.

“Didn’t you hear what I just said? It’s _over_!” Clearly not in the mood to discuss this any further, Jack pulled up the night-night gun in his hand and shot the other man point blank, watching him slump to the ground completely indifferently. Then he simply bent down and pulled his weapon from the soldier’s holster, dropping his own gun in the process.

“Yeah, don’t worry, I got the message. Loud and clear.”

He checked the magazine of the gun and, as he found it only half full, searched the unconscious man’s pockets until he found a spare one, which he took with him as well, as he headed back in the direction he had just come from, only briefly stopping to remove the bullet proof vest he was wearing under his jacket and leaving it behind carelessly.

With SHIELD agents in all directions and no support or escape route left, running was out of the question now. But as long as he had anything to say in this, there was no way that they were going to take him alive.

 

* * *

Ward was cursing himself, as he rushed down the stairs to follow Jack, or Curtis Tyler, or whatever the hell his name was at the moment. Not that it mattered anyway. Whatever he was calling himself, he was still the man, who had kidnapped Skye, who had tortured her, as he had even admitted himself now, and who knew where she was hidden, which made it even worse that he had managed to escape again.

He should have restrained him the second he had found him among those injured by the explosion, Ward told himself once again, but of course it was too late for that now. He was just glad that Jemma had been left unharmed after Jack had used her for his escape and he knew that while the compound was far from secured, she was safe with Agent Haze and the field agents accompanying them. At least that was what he had told himself, as he had left them behind without a second thought to follow Skye’s kidnapper.

He was at the foot of the stairs now and about to open the door to the second basement level, as his instincts suddenly kicked in and held him back from going any further.

This entire factory was still enemy territory and there were most likely guards positioned right outside the door, prepared to shoot him as soon as he opened it. But, as he quickly realised, if he didn’t hurry up, he would lose Jack and who knew how long it would take for them to find Skye on their own.

He had lost his assault rifle earlier, when the Talos soldier had tackled him in an attempt to get to Jack, but Ward was still carrying his usual sidearm and a reserve which he now both pulled out, making sure he could take out as many enemies as possible.

If he had been in less of a hurry, and less focused on following Jack, he might have noticed the SHIELD agents at the top of the stairwell, but as it was, Ward didn’t hesitate any longer and pulled the door open in one quick movement, while he was leaning against the wall next to it.

An onslaught of bullets came through the doorway and hit the wall opposite from it and part of the stairs until it finally subsided, as the shooters realised that they weren’t hitting anyone. This brief moment of hesitation and confusion was all that Ward needed and he instantly spun around and out into the open, immediately catching sight of his targets.

Two members of Talos had their guns pointed at him, but before either of them could react, Ward had put them both down with a bullet to the head, rendering their bullet proof vests completely useless.

After quickly making sure that there were no other enemies around, he kept following the corridor ahead of him, hoping to catch up with his target soon. It was about a minute later, when Agent Coulson’s voice came over the radio unexpectedly, almost startling the agent in his pursuit.

“Ward, what’s your situation?” The specialist looked around briefly to make sure no-one was around before answering.

“I’m down on the second level following Tyler. I already had him and I let him escape, but I’m sure as hell not going to let him get away. He knows where Skye is.”

“And Simmons and Haze?”, his C.O. asked, his voice clearly betraying his concern.

“They’re back on the first level with the field team and the other Talos members we took prisoner.”

“Well, actually, we’re down here as well,” Agent Simmons suddenly replied over the radio, sounding almost adventurous now that she and Haze had separated from the rest of the group.

“We just found the two men you took down, so we’re not far behind you,” she explained, causing Ward to sigh in frustration. He knew that Simmons wasn’t on her own, but he still didn’t like the fact that she was putting herself in danger like this. He briefly contemplated telling the scientist to head back upstairs, but he had a feeling that arguing with her or Haze would be in vain at this point.

When Agent Coulson spoke up again however, it was the first good news that Ward had heard in a while.

“Alright, you try and track down Tyler, but be careful. Our team is still on the other side of the compound from you, and even though with the help of some reinforcements we were finally able to break through Talos’ resistance and take down most of their men, several of them are still on the run. I have units combing the entire factory for them now, but fortunately Fitz thinks he has identified the surveillance room. We’re headed there now, and with a little luck we’ll find not just the rest of Talos’ soldiers, but also Skye through their camera system.”

After giving a brief confirmation to his C.O., Ward kept moving forward in silence, until the corridor in front of him widened into an almost open area with only a few crates and machine parts lying around here and there.

As he took another step however, a bullet suddenly hit the wall right next to him, the sound of the shot echoing from the walls. Quickly diving behind one of the crates for cover, the agent tried to figure out where his attacker was hiding, but he didn’t have to look any longer as Jack’s voice now came from the other end of the room.

“You know, I do feel like I actually know you, Agent Ward. Skye told me pretty much everything there is to know about your whole team, but the way she talked about you, her S.O., makes me think that you two had a more special relationship there.”

Another bullet pierced the air, embedding itself in the concrete floor not far from Ward’s legs. But the agent knew that Jack couldn’t hit him from his position. He would have to come closer first and that was exactly what he was counting on. He had to admit however, that hearing the blond man talk about Skye was testing his patience far more than he would have liked.

“But considering how close you all are on your Bus, it’s kind of odd that during all the hours I tortured Skye, she never once called for help. I mean, there was a lot of screaming in pain and _so many_ tears, but not a single cry for help. I guess she knew that I was telling the truth, when I told her about the false lead I had left for you and how easily you believed it. ‘ _So long_ ’, that was all it took to convince you, wasn’t it? And Skye knew it, too. She knew that you wouldn’t come for her.” 

One more shot suddenly rang out, but this time it wasn’t Jack, who had fired it. Agent Ward had leapt out of his cover and was now facing the mercenary directly, his gun still aimed at him.

Jack grunted in pain as the bullet pierced his right shoulder, causing his grip to loosen and his own gun to drop from his hand.

“I’m here now, aren’t I?”, Ward asked fiercely, but his opponent didn’t reply.

Instead it was a female voice that suddenly called out to him.

“Agent Ward!” He turned his head slightly to see Haze and Simmons approaching his position. The former had just called his name and going by the look on her face, he knew that she was trying to remind him of the promise she had made to capture Tyler alive.

However, as much as Ward would certainly have enjoyed it, he didn’t really have any intention of killing him.

The blond man was still standing in the same spot unmoving, his left hand cradling his injury.

“You’re a miserable shot, you know that?”, he suddenly muttered in pain, looking down at the blood leaking from the hole in his shoulder. The wound was probably hurting like hell, but it was far from fatal.

“Oh, don’t worry, if I had wanted you dead, you’d be dead. But you still haven’t told me where Skye is,” Agent Ward replied matter-of-factly, as he kept his eyes fixated on his wounded enemy.

An unreadable expression passed briefly over Jack’s features at this answer, but then it suddenly turned into a crooked grin that sent a dark sense of foreboding through Ward.

“So you still haven’t figured it out, have you?”, the blond man asked, looking at the agent almost haughtily.

“Figured out what?”, Ward asked back, clearly not in the mood for games.

“That you’re too late. Skye isn’t here anymore. I mean, her body is, of course, but _she_ is long gone. She is _dead_.”

Ward drew a sharp breath and crossed the remaining distance between himself and the mercenary, hitting him across the head with his gun, sending him to his knees. The impact must have sent another wave of pain through his body, but Ward didn’t care. He pressed the barrel of his gun firmly against Jack’s forehead as he now stood towering in front of him.

“No! No, you’re lying!”, he pressed out angrily, even though he suddenly felt strangely detached from reality. Desperation was seeping into his voice, as the image of Skye’s dead body burned itself into his mind. “She’s not dead, so tell me where she is!” But when Jack let out a small humourless laugh, Ward found his conviction wavering.

“Why would I lie? I killed Skye and she died _afraid_ and _alone_ , knowing that you _abandoned_ her.” The words hit Ward harder than any weapon ever could and for a moment he couldn’t breathe anymore. After throwing his gun to the side, he punched Jack in the face forcefully, sending him crashing to the floor.

However, the agent wasn’t done yet. All the emotions that had built up inside of him over the past few days burst violently to the surface as he kept hitting the blond man, his knuckles already red from his enemy’s blood.

“NO!”, Ward shouted, all his pain, desperation and sorrow erupting in one powerful outburst, and even though his hand was already hurting from the impact, he kept bringing his fist down on Jack’s face, too out of it to even know what he was doing any longer.

“Why? Why did you kill her?”, he suddenly started shouting, but still wasn’t stopping his attack. Ward was completely out of it, his mind overwhelmed with anger, guilt and pain. He didn’t even seem to notice that Jack had already lost consciousness, but just as he was about to hit him yet again, someone suddenly grabbed his arm, effectively pulling the agent out of his rage.

The hold wasn’t very strong, so Ward could have easily freed his arm and continued his attack, but he felt like all the fight left in him suddenly dissipated at the touch, leaving him feeling nothing but numb inside.

Agent Simmons was the one, who had stopped him and her tear stained face now appeared next to him, looking at the specialist pleadingly.

“Ward, stop! It’s… it’s over. Just…,” she paused as she looked down at the mangled face of Curtis Tyler beneath her. She knew he deserved it, every punch that Ward had thrown at him and probably worse, but Jemma still couldn’t stand by and let something like this happen. And she knew that Skye wouldn’t have wanted this, either. So she looked back up at Ward, making sure he returned her gaze and finished imploringly, “… just _stop_!”

The operative agent finally nodded and Simmons let go of his arm, but he wasn’t even paying attention to her any longer. He simply stood up and moved away from the broken body on the floor, until he dropped down against one of the walls, watching the events in front of him with complete indifference.

Skye was dead.

She was _dead_ , so how could anything else possibly matter any longer?

Agent Simmons was kneeling down next to Tyler now and frantically searched for a pulse or any other sign of life. She called Agent Haze over to help her, and the computer expert, who had still been standing near the doorway, too shocked herself to do anything, hurried towards her, following the scientist’s orders without objection.

Apparently the mercenary had stopped breathing, because Simmons now pulled a manual resuscitator out of her backpack and quickly intubated him, as the damage to his face made the use of the mask difficult. She then handed the bag to Haze to operate the respiration while she started with chest compressions to revive her patient.

Ward felt like he was getting sick watching them. He didn’t care that he had almost beaten Skye’s kidnapper to death, more like the exact opposite actually. He couldn’t understand why Simmons was even trying to save him, when he had so freely admitted what he had done to Skye. That he had been the one, who had killed her.

The impulse to stop the two women from what they were doing suddenly brought Ward back to his feet, but then he didn’t have the energy left to go through with it after all. Instead he retrieved his weapon, which he had dropped earlier and looked around, making sure that their position was secure.

After giving their location out over the radio and asking for backup, he turned to Haze and Simmons one more time, his voice hollow as he spoke.

“I’ll go and find Coulson and the others. Another team will be here in a second so you’ll be safe, but I have to tell them what happened and... and I can’t do that over the radio.”

As Jemma looked up at him now, Ward knew that she understood perfectly how he felt. Even while she was busy trying to save the man, who had killed her friend, tears were streaming down her cheeks freely and she obviously couldn’t even bring herself to say anything as she just nodded in reply.

Agent Haze, who also looked stricken, nodded as well, assuring the agent that they would be fine.

“This area is clear and the next field team can’t be too far away, so don’t worry about us. Coulson said they were heading towards the surveillance room, right? Maybe Fitz can find Skye’s... can find Skye with the help of the cameras, so we can at least bring her home.”

This time it was Ward’s turn to simply nod in reply, as he found it too hard to accept that that was the only thing they could still do for their team mate. For the woman he....

After picking up Simmons’ tablet off the ground, so he would have a map of the compound, the specialist quickly turned around and left the scene behind, heading towards the position of the rest of the team.

 

* * *

 

“Do you have anything yet?”, Agent May asked from her position at the door, glancing at Agent Fitz once more. He and Coulson were trying to get the surveillance system that Trevor Green and his men had obviously installed in the factory back to work, but apparently they had done a lot of damage to it before abandoning this area.

“No, not yet,” the scientist replied, clearly annoyed. “Believe me, I’ll tell you when I do. But to ‘have anything’ I would have to get this thing to come back to life first, of course, so unless you have any useful ideas on how to work around a perforated main frame and that without any functioning power source, I’d prefer not to be interrupted again.”

Agent May raised an eyebrow at the rude reply, but Coulson caught her eye and just shrugged, knowing that Fitz could be difficult, when he had to work under pressure.

The female agent briefly rolled her eyes in reply before looking back out into the corridor to keep watch, but then her entire demeanour changed instantly, as she noticed someone approaching their position. She instinctively shifted into a fighting stance, her gun raised, but as she finally recognised the person coming towards her, she lowered it again, a frown replacing the alert look on her face.

“Ward?”, she called out, obviously startling the agent, who didn’t seem to have noticed her yet. May didn’t know if he was injured, at least nothing in his movements indicated it, but there was a lot of blood on his hands and face.

He was still coming closer, but so far he hadn’t said a word and his silence was beginning to unsettle the usually so calm woman.

“Ward, what happened? Are Simmons and Haze alright?” Even though he still didn’t say a word, the agent at least nodded, appeasing some of May’s worries. She still didn’t know what to make of his odd behaviour, but before she could say anything else, Fitz suddenly called out from inside the room.

“ _Now_ I have something!”, he shouted triumphantly, causing May to turn around to him and Ward to finally enter the room. Several of the monitors in the room had sprung to life and the scientist began typing on one of the keyboards in concentration, not even noticing Ward’s appearance.

But Coulson did. He took a long look at the younger agent, noticing the blood on his hands, clothes and face, and the expression in his eyes that he knew all too well.

“No...,” he began, not wanting to believe the conclusion his mind had arrived at. 

“Sir,” Ward began, his throat constricted with pain, “Skye is...”

“Yes, I found her!” Fitz’s voice suddenly interrupted the specialist and as the engineer turned around now, he looked completely taken aback, as he became aware of him.

“My god, Ward, what happened to you?”

“You found her?”, the dark haired man asked in return, completely ignoring the question.

“Yes, I just said so, didn’t I? Now, that’s not Simmons’ blood, is it? Tell me she’s alright, Ward!”

His patience wearing thin, the operative agent approached the man in front of him now and grabbed him by the shoulders, causing him to shudder slightly as the blood covered his sleeves.

“Simmons is fine, now tell me, where is Skye? I _need_ to see her.” Nodding frantically, the scientist tried to point at the monitor behind him until Ward finally let go of him, realising that he wouldn’t get an answer if he kept restraining the younger man.

“There she is,” Fitz pointed out, tapping on one of the monitors. It was showing some kind of cell, obviously using a night vision camera, and in the centre of the room was a woman with long dark hair sitting slumped down on a chair. She wasn’t moving and as she was positioned with her back to the camera, it was impossible to tell whether she was alive or dead, but the same couldn’t be said about the man lying next to her feet, obviously in a pool of his own blood.

“What the hell?”, Fitz uttered as he became aware of the second person in the image, but Ward couldn’t care less about whoever that was. He just needed to find Skye.

“Where is that?”, he asked Fitz urgently, not taking his eyes from the monitor even for a moment.

“Just a second,” the scientist muttered, as he was typing at another computer, pulling up what looked like a map of the entire compound, including all the camera locations. He quickly checked the number displayed in the corner of Skye’s camera feed, then traced with his fingers across the map in front of him until he finally tapped at the monitor excitedly.

“There! There she is. That’s not far actually. Just down that corridor,” he indicated a doorway to their right, “and it’s the very last door. But we haven’t cleared that area yet. There might still be some Talos guys in that direction...,” but Ward didn’t hear him anymore as he was already running out of the room and down the corridor, his heart pounding loudly in his chest and only one thought on his mind.

Skye.

So far he had believed Tyler that she was dead, but now that he had seen her, even if only on a crappy camera feed, a small part of him was beginning to hope that it wasn’t true.

Could she still be alive or was he really too late?

Maybe Tyler had lied, but for what reason? What was the point of lying, when he had already known that he was beaten?

In the end however, all these questions became redundant, as Ward had finally reached his destination, a plain looking door, which was now the only thing separating him from Skye and from finding out if she was alive or dead. End of the line...

The door turned out to be locked, but Ward quickly managed to break it open by throwing his weight against it without a second’s hesitation, unwilling to let anything stand in his way now.

As soon as he found himself in the dark room behind it though, he stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes fixated on the figure sitting in the centre.

Skye.

She was obviously tied to the chair she was sitting on, her head slumped to her chest and her long hair covering her face. But as he already thought that she was unconscious, or worse, she suddenly lifted her head and looked straight at him.

“Skye,” Ward uttered silently, still unmoving, completely overwhelmed by the wave of relief that was washing over him at the realisation that the young woman was in fact alive.

At the same time his heart was breaking however, as he became aware of the state she was in. The light falling in from the hallway behind him was bright enough for him to see that the blouse and jacket she had been wearing the last time he had seen her, had been removed and he also immediately spotted the burn marks and bruises all over her arms and neck. Her mouth was covered with a strip of duct tape, the same that had been used to restrain her, making it impossible for her to say anything.

The one thing however that hit Ward the hardest, that almost made him stop, as he wanted to approach Skye, was the completely terrified look in her eyes as she was staring back at him.

As he finally crossed the remaining distance between them and crouched down in front of the young woman, not caring about the blood on the floor, or the man with the cut throat lying next to the chair, he kept talking to her reassuringly, to make her understand that she was safe now.

“Skye, it’s over, no-one’s going to hurt you anymore, I promise.”

But her fear only appeared to become stronger and when Ward reached out slowly to remove the tape from her mouth, Skye flinched back violently, obviously afraid of his touch.

“What did he do to you?”, the agent uttered quietly, more to himself than to the petrified woman, as he lowered his hand again, not wanting to upset her any further. He looked into her eyes, searching them for any sign of recognition, but finally had to realise that there wasn’t any. They were bright with tears and the light from the corridor being reflected in them, but Ward couldn’t find himself in them.

It was that fact however, that finally gave him an idea. He looked around the room for a brief moment before he found the camera on the wall behind Skye. He looked directly at it, knowing that the rest of the team was probably watching him right now and activated his radio.

“Fitz, give us some light in here!”, he ordered, having realised why Skye was looking at him as if she didn’t know him. With the light only coming in from behind him, she couldn’t really see him properly. It didn’t explain why she hadn’t recognised his voice, but Ward had decided to just try and figure out one thing at a time.

He stayed completely motionless, waiting for the lights to go on, even as he suddenly heard footsteps coming towards the room from the corridor. They were soft and barely audible and he would recognise them anywhere. Agent May had obviously followed him as backup, but even though he was glad for the support, he had already forgotten her presence again when the room was suddenly lit up brightly and he and Skye were looking at each other for the first time in days – days that felt like a lifetime now.

The change in her reaction was instantaneous.

While she was still trembling slightly from shock, Skye was looking at him steadily from underneath the strands of her messy hair that had fallen into her face, and this time she didn’t protest as Ward reached out again to gently move some of them out of the way. He cringed as he saw the bruises left on her delicate face, causing him to be especially careful as he now removed the tape from her mouth.

“Ward?” Skye’s voice sounded so small and vulnerable, as she finally spoke that the agent could barely believe it was coming from the usually so exuberant young woman.

He nodded in reply, but before he could say anything else, the hacker continued, telling him something he had clearly not anticipated.

“Ward, I can’t hear! I don’t know what Jack did to me, but I can’t hear anything.” Her eyes were wide in fear again, and a few tears were running down her cheeks, as she was obviously terrified that her condition would be permanent.

His brow furrowed in concern, Ward pushed Skye’s hair back on both sides of her head to get a better look at her ears and now he noticed for the first time the small round objects that were attached to her neck. Following an impulse, he simply pulled them off, hoping that they were responsible for Skye’s deafness.

“Better?”, he asked tentatively, as he looked up at the young woman hopefully and the expression on her face at the sound of his voice was all the answer he needed.

“Yah,” she replied in a choked voice, nodding, and despite her still desolate condition Skye couldn’t help but smile for the first time in forever.

Whether it was from sheer relief or the stress of her imprisonment, or both, Ward didn’t know, but her happiness lasted only for a short moment until Skye suddenly started crying uncontrollably, tears streaming down her bruised cheeks, moving the agent more than any other reaction she could have shown.

Leaning forward in his crouched position, Ward laid one hand gently on the side of Skye’s face and brought his forehead against hers, trying to reassure her with his presence.

“It’s over, you’re safe now. You got through this, Skye, you made it. And I’ll bring you home now.”

He remained like this for another moment before letting go of Skye reluctantly. Then he pulled out a knife to cut through the tape binding the young woman and even though she flinched briefly at the sight, she held still until he had finally freed her from her restrains. When he was done, Ward moved back in front of her again, doing his best to stay clear of the dead body on the floor and took her hand in his gently.

“Can you walk?”, he asked, worried that Skye had suffered more injuries than he could have made out so far. She nodded briefly and he helped her to her feet, but the days of torture had obviously taken their toll on the young woman and her knees buckled underneath her after only a few careful steps.

When Ward was already about to pick Skye up to carry her though, the hacker pushed him away, her eyes fixated on the hallway ahead.

“No,” she uttered weakly, but determinedly, “I want to walk..., I have to walk out of that door.” And, glancing up at Ward, she repeated, “I _have_ to.”

The agent knew enough about hostage situations, either from personal experience or his training, to realise how important this small accomplishment was to Skye, that it had probably been the one goal in her mind all this time to walk out of the door of her prison and into freedom and so he wasn’t going to take this from her.

Instead of carrying her, he pulled her left arm over his shoulder to support her and together they made their way forward, Skye doing her best to keep herself steady.

The light from the hallway was shining in her eyes once again, but this time she welcomed it, as she was walking towards it. For a second she stumbled slightly, but Ward kept her on her feet and finally they made it through the doorway and into the corridor beyond, where Agent May was waiting for them, looking at their rookie in fond relief, even though she was obviously trying to maintain her professional appearance.

Skye’s eyes lit up noticeably, as she became aware of the agent, but for the moment she merely greeted her with a brief nod, too exhausted right now for another emotional reunion. Even though she felt and looked like hell, her cheeks still wet with tears, Skye’s relief over making it out of her cell was almost palpable and she actually managed to smile in this own personal victory.

Or at least she did for about three seconds, until her knees finally completely gave out underneath her and she would have collapsed to the ground, had Ward not been holding her.

“Okay, that’s far enough. You’ve made it out the door, now leave the rest to me. Don’t worry. I told you I’ll get you out of here and I will.” He reached down and scooped the petite hacker up in his arms in one quick movement, startling her slightly. But Skye obviously felt safe with him, as she proceeded to wrap her arms around Ward’s neck and bury her face in his shoulder.

As he didn’t want to remain in this horrible place for even another second, Agent Ward started walking back down the corridor, intend on taking the shortest way out of the building, Agent May at his side making sure that nobody got in their way. The dead body in the cell, Jack, Talos, all of it was already forgotten, as the only thing that mattered was in his arms right now.

And she was alive and safe.

**To be continued...**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There you go, Skye is free at last, but don't worry, this is far from the end of the story. Reactions, thoughts, ideas go in the box below so tell me what you guys think! And to be honest, aside from the rescue itself, I'm really curious what you think about Jack in this chapter, so I'd be extremely grateful for some feedback there.
> 
> See you in the next chapter! :)


	25. Considerably Well

“ _We found Skye. She’s alive and considerably well, given the circumstances. Ward and I are bringing her out now_.”

There were no words to describe the amount of relief that washed over Agent Coulson, as he heard May’s voice coming over the radio, telling him and everyone else, who had been part of this mission that they had been successful. Skye was safe.

Pulling himself away from the surveillance monitor for a moment, where he had been tracking the movements of a group of Talos members that were still on the run, he stepped over to Fitz, the engineer obviously equally glad that their team mate had been rescued. He was even a little teary-eyed with happiness, as he pointed at one of the four camera feeds on the screen in front of him, which was currently showing the agents May and Ward walking down a long corridor, the latter carrying Skye in his arms, his protectiveness of her showing all too clearly.

“See, they got her,” the scientist exclaimed cheerfully, having been able to watch the entire rescue in contrast to his C.O.

Coulson looked at the three members of his team and sighed deeply, feeling a massive weight falling from his shoulders.

“And for a moment there I was afraid we were too late,” he admitted quietly, unable to tear his gaze away from the monitor, as he remembered the way Ward had been looking at him earlier with pain and sorrow in his eyes. “That Skye was…” But the agent let his voice trail off, unwilling to finish the sentence, as he tried not to think about what-ifs any longer. Instead he chose to focus on the one task still ahead of him, to bring not just Skye, but every agent on this mission back home alive.

When Fitz had found Skye’s location only a few minutes ago, and Ward had immediately left to get to her, Coulson had wanted to go with him, not only to see the young woman’s condition for himself, but also because after everything she had been through these past few days, he had felt that he had to be there for her when she was rescued, that he owed her that much.

However, the second he had turned around to follow Ward, who had already run off towards Skye’s cell, Fitz had held him back, indicating the once again working surveillance monitors in the room. Obviously there had still been intense fighting taking place in parts of the compound and some of their men had even been pinned down by the few remaining Talos members, who had still been putting up resistance.

Coulson had wanted to go to Skye, to make sure she was alright, but he had also known that he was responsible for more than just her. He was in charge of this entire rescue mission, and while some of the agents under his command had already been injured, there had been no casualties on their side and he wanted to keep it that way.

So in the end Coulson had forced himself to stay behind and had instead sent May after Ward to serve as his backup, knowing that the female agent was just as anxious as the rest of the team to finally find their missing hacker.

Even though he still hated not being a direct part of Skye’s rescue, seeing her being carried to safety by Ward now finally eased his remaining worries and confirmed that he had made the right decision. Their rookie was safe, just as the agents, who had been attacked by Talos members earlier and they were now a good step further in securing the facility.

However, as Coulson quickly reminded himself, if he wanted to achieve that goal quickly, he had to get back to coordinating the field teams, and so he turned his head to look at Fitz, giving him brief orders.

“Get in radio contact with May. Make sure that they take the fastest and safest route out of the factory.”

After a quick glance at the map of the compound, the scientist answered immediately.

“Actually, I think there’s a staircase not far from their position,” he pointed out, but seemed slightly reluctant to direct his team mates in that direction.

“But?” The older agent asked in return, sensing the engineer’s hesitation.

“But, if they don’t go up there, they’ll come by this room again, which would mean that we could see Skye. You know, make sure she’s alright,” Fitz explained, obviously a little embarrassed by his reasoning.

Coulson smiled softly, as he looked at the scientist for a moment, clearly understanding his motivation, but in the end he shook his head negative.

“No. I understand that you’re still worried, Fitz, because so am I, but the best thing we can do for Skye right now is to make sure that she can leave this place as quickly as possible. Ward and May are taking care of her right now, so she’ll be alright, but we have to make sure that the rest of our men will get home safe and sound as well. We haven’t had any casualties yet, and I’m going to make sure that it’s going to stay that way.”

He pointed at the monitor displaying Skye and the others, as he went back over to the one he had been watching earlier.

“You make sure that they’ll find their way out of here, while I’ll coordinate the rest of the assault team. We have a few agents wounded already and a team of medics waiting outside, but I won’t be able to call them in while there are still some members of Talos putting up a fight.”

Fitz nodded and started giving instructions to Agent May, watching her and the others over the monitor intently. Now that they had finally found Skye, he couldn’t wait for this operation to be over, because all he wanted to do right now was to pull her into a tight embrace, making sure that she knew she was safe.

 

* * *

 

“ _We found Skye. She’s alive and considerably well, given the circumstances. Ward and I are bringing her out now_.”

Agent Haze froze for a moment, as May’s voice came over her earpiece, not sure if she could believe what she had just heard. One look over at Agent Simmons, whose face was still tear stained, told her that she wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Despite her confusion however, the computer expert quickly pulled herself together again and continued to press the respirator in her hands at a steady interval, making sure that the man on the ground next to her wouldn’t suffocate.

His entire face swollen and bloody, Curtis Tyler was barely recognisable after the beating Ward had given him, and while Simmons’ resuscitation attempt had been successful, the mercenary still wasn’t breathing on his own, and right now Agent Haze’s effort to give him artificial respiration was the only thing keeping him alive.

“Do you think May is telling the truth, that Skye is alive?”, Simmons finally asked, completely bewildered and obviously reluctant to let herself believe the good news, after having struggled so much to keep her composure, when she had heard that her friend was dead only minutes ago.

“But how is that possible, he said that he killed her?”, the scientist added, looking down at the blond man on the ground in confusion.

“I have no idea why, but I guess he must have lied to Agent Ward,” Agent Haze replied, still sounding utterly surprised, as she tried to make sense of the situation.

“Then what about everything else he said,” Simmons continued, looking noticeably uncomfortable at the subject, “you know, how he tortured Skye and that he… that he broke her.”

Her voice had almost trailed off completely at the end and the biochemist was now looking at the other agent uncertainly, as if she was waiting for her to tell her that those claims must have been lies as well.

In the end Agent Haze shook her head in reply, unable to give a satisfying answer herself.

“I honestly don’t know, Jemma.”

Remaining completely silent, Simmons merely nodded in response, but after a moment’s hesitation, she suddenly began packing up her backpack again, taking almost all of her supplies except from the respirator Haze was still using. She was clearly hurrying and only stopped once or twice to wipe the remaining tears from her face, forcing herself to act as professionally as possible.

“Well, May said that Skye is “considerably well”, which probably means that she has at least a few injuries. I mean, of course she has, after everything she went through. I know his condition is still critical,” the scientist admitted, looking down at Tyler, “but I have to get to Skye. My responsibility on this mission is to take care of her medical treatment, so I really should have been there the moment she was found.”

Grabbing the last of her things, Simmons got back to her feet, but then she hesitated for a moment, obviously reluctant to leave Agent Haze behind to take care of Tyler. The computer expert nodded understandingly though, obviously not in the least surprised that the scientist was leaving.

“We’re here to rescue Skye and to make sure she’s alright, so of course you have to go to her. It’s not like I’ll be completely on my own,” she reminded Jemma as she nodded in the direction of the field agents guarding them, “and I’m sure Coulson is going to send more medics in once the building is secure. Until then I’ll hold the fort here. And don’t worry, I promised to bring this bastard in alive, so I’ll make sure he keeps breathing until help gets here,” she finished, looking down at Curtis Tyler with contempt, before motioning for Simmons to leave already.

The biochemist quickly nodded gratefully, before ordering two of the field agents to come with her to escort her to Skye and the rest of her team.

After Simmons was gone, there were still three heavily armed SHIELD agents standing guard at the entrances of the room, making sure that none of the remaining Talos members could stumble upon them, but Agent Haze was barely aware of them, as she was completely focused on the unconscious man next to her, doing her best to keep him alive.

She studied his face in silence for a while, or rather the mess that was left of it, and a part of her couldn’t help but feel responsible for his condition. She had promised Olivia to make sure her brother wasn’t killed during the rescue mission and yet she hadn’t done anything to stop Agent Ward from taking out his rage on the already injured mercenary. If it hadn’t been for Agent Simmons, she was sure that Tyler would be dead by now, and the agent marvelled once again at how the other woman had even been able to pull herself together the way she had.

Jemma hadn’t just stopped Ward’s assault on Tyler, but had also revived the mercenary and treated his injuries, including the bullet wound in his shoulder, the best she could to make sure he was stable enough until further help arrived, all the while believing that he had killed one of her best friends.

Haze had always considered herself a professional in her job, keeping her emotions out of it if they threatened to get in the way of a mission, but even though she didn’t actually know Skye herself, Tyler’s proud confession to have killed the hacker had struck her so unexpectedly, that she had simply stopped caring about her promise, convincing herself that if the young woman was dead, her killer didn’t deserve to live, either.

And yet here she was now, essentially breathing for the mercenary even before she had found out the truth, that his confession to Ward had been a lie.

Shaking her head in slight disbelief, the agent started talking to the unconscious man, not caring that they weren’t alone.

“You know, I have no idea why you provoked Agent Ward the way you did, if you actually wanted him to just shoot you or if you simply enjoy hurting and manipulating people so much that you had to get the last word, no matter the consequences, but it doesn’t matter really, because you’re not getting out of this that easily. Your life for Skye’s location, that was the deal I made with your sister, so whether either of us likes it or not, I’m not going to let you die here today. No, I’ll make sure that you’ll spend the next few decades in the Fridge, where you won’t be able to hurt anyone ever again.”

Falling silent once more, Agent Haze slowly shifted into a more comfortable sitting position, preparing herself for the wait until help arrived, more than eager to pass the responsibility for Tyler’s life to somebody else. She was going to fulfil her promise to keep him alive, but once this was all over, she would gladly bring as much distance between them as possible.

 

* * *

 

At first she had been afraid, terrified really.

When Jack had left her in her dark cell with the dead body, essentially blind and deaf, she had known that he wasn’t going to come back. His “so long, Skye” had been his final goodbye to her, and even though a part of her had felt glad to see him gone, the uncertainty and hopelessness of her situation had kept her from feeling anything but dread.

With Jack gone, she hadn’t known what had been going to happen to her next; maybe somebody even worse would have come and taken his place, or, as Skye had reminded herself, maybe nobody would have come at all and her fate would have been to die an incredibly slow death of dehydration with no one but the corpse of Jack’s dead boss to keep her company.

But it hadn’t come to that.

Skye wasn’t sure how long it had been, less than an hour most likely, until the door to her cell had opened once again and a difference silhouette had blocked out the light from the corridor. There had been something vaguely familiar about it, but in her terrified state she had only seen another tormentor in the man, who had approached her so decisively and had crouched down in front of her, the fact that she hadn’t been able to hear his voice only increasing the intimidation she had felt.

However, once the light had been turned on again and she had finally recognised the intruder, the fear she had been feeling constantly for the past few days had left her instantly. There had been a short moment of disbelief that Ward was really there, which hadn’t been all that surprising, given the fact that she had been hallucinating earlier, but once she had felt his touch on her cheek, all her doubts had been erased. At least for the moment.

Back there in her cell, Ward’s presence had been her anchor, the rescue dispelling all the fears and doubts of her imprisonment, but now, even as they were still making their way through the corridors of the abandoned factory, a nagging feeling started to grow in the back of Skye’s mind, not allowing her to really enjoy her freedom.

Even though she could feel Ward’s strong arms holding her tightly as he was still carrying her, and she was burying her head against his chest, a part of Skye kept insisting that this wasn’t real. To have Ward and the rest of her team here to save her, somehow it just felt too good to be true and as she took a quick look at her surroundings, the feeling suddenly intensified, leaving her breathless with fear.

For a moment, Skye didn’t know why she was so afraid all of a sudden, but then she realised that she had started to recognise the area they were now in. The grey corridors of the factory had all looked the same at first, but they had just made their way up a familiar looking stairwell and sure enough, Skye quickly found herself back in the abandoned office section of the factory.

She closed her eyes tightly, but the memories of her failed escape attempt came back relentlessly, making her afraid that somehow all of this was just another elaborate plan of Jack to torment her, to lock her back up just as she thought herself free again.

This time however he didn’t show up to stop her. Nobody did. Ward carried her out of the office and down the corridor leading outside without incident, Agent May at their side the entire time, barely saying a single word, a silent guardian making sure that nothing happened to either of her team mates. As the front door of the building finally opened in front of them and Ward stepped outside, Skye’s grip around his neck suddenly tensed and the agent looked down at her, noticing her reaction. The young woman was looking up at the sky now, the bright morning sun shining in her face, making her wide eyes sparkle with emotions.

“It’s over, you’re safe now,” Ward repeated his words from earlier, somehow getting the feeling that Skye might not have been able to completely believe him back in her cell.

“Yeah,” she finally replied hesitantly, but as Ward was already about to keep moving, Skye suddenly pushed against his chest, stopping him.

“You can let me down now, okay? I’m alright, I just… needed a moment, I guess.”

“You sure?”, Ward asked worriedly, thinking back to Skye’s earlier failed attempts of walking on her own, but the hacker remained resolute.

“Yeah, don’t worry. I’m already feeling a little better out here in the fresh air and seriously, my injuries aren’t that bad that you have to carry me all the way, Ward.”

“Alright, suit yourself,” the agent replied shortly, as he set the young woman down. He didn’t show any particular reaction to this exchange, but Skye somehow had the impression that he was very reluctant to let go of her and so she gave him a weak smile as she looked up at him.

“But thanks anyway. I really don’t think I could have made that way on my own, not again at least.”

“Again…?”, Ward began to ask, but was suddenly interrupted as a familiar voice came from the corridor behind them, causing the small group to turn their heads simultaneously.

“Skye!” Of course she recognised the voice shouting her name immediately, but before she could get a good look at the young woman running towards her, or really knew what was happening, Skye suddenly found herself wrapped up in a fierce embrace, the blond strands of hair falling into her face clearly belonging to Agent Simmons, who was now clinging to her tightly.

“Jemma,” Skye simply replied, not really knowing what else to say, as she returned the embrace and wrapped her arms around her friend’s back in relief. The hacker took a deep breath and did her best to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill from her eyes again, tired of crying, as she held onto the equally emotional biochemist.

After a long moment of silence, interrupted only by the occasional sobs coming from the blond woman, she finally let go of Skye and took a step back, suddenly looking alarmed, as she wiped across her eyes hastily.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to assault you like that. I’m on this mission to make sure that you receive the proper medical treatment, and here I am, possibly aggravating your injuries. That was very unprofessional, I’m really sorry,” Simmons apologised profusely, looking her patient over in the process.

Skye let out a small laugh at her friend’s nervous behaviour, actually slightly startling herself with the noise. She knew that her imprisonment probably hadn’t been as long as it had seemed, but to her it still felt like forever since the last time she had been able to laugh.

“No, don’t worry, you didn’t aggravate anything. I’m not really that heavily injured, I’m just really thirsty and could use a bite to eat or two,” Skye explained, trying to reassure the scientist, but Simmons was still looking at her rather uncertainly.

“Seriously, stop looking at me like that,” she finally ordered, already being annoyed by her friend’s overprotectiveness. “I already told Ward that I can walk on my own and I can definitely get a hug without breaking apart. Really, I’m fine-”

That last part had been more of a reflex than anything else really, an empty phrase to stop her team mates from worrying about her, but Skye felt the words die on her lips, as she shuddered unnoticeably, realising that that was possibly one of the most blatant lies she had ever told.

True, her physical injuries weren’t as severe as Jemma was obviously afraid of, but she definitely wasn’t fine. In fact, she had never felt this far away from ‘fine’ in her entire life and Skye could tell that the others were seeing that now as well, going by the upset looks on their faces.

She could see that Simmons was struggling to find the right words, searching desperately for something to say to console her friend, and that Ward was looking at her with pain and helplessness in his eyes, but in the end it was Agent May, who suddenly stepped forward, grabbing Skye gently by the shoulders, and spoke to her in a soothing tone.

“No, you’re not. But that’s okay. We’re here for you, Skye.” The young hacker didn’t know what to say to that, as she was completely dumbfounded by May’s kindness. But as, despite her best efforts, tears suddenly started to spill from her eyes once again, it was her, who initiated the embrace this time, wrapping her arms around Agent May almost desperately and burying her head against her shoulder.

The specialist hesitated for a brief moment, not really having expected this kind of reaction, given the rather distant relationship she had always had with Skye so far, but then she finally returned the hug, holding the shaking woman tightly.

**To be continued...**


	26. Here To Protect You

“Alright, but remember, slowly!”, Agent Simmons warned, as she handed a bottle of water to Skye. The young woman took it eagerly and sighed in relief, as she felt the cold liquid run down her throat.

“I know you’re thirsty, Skye, but only a few sips, or otherwise you’re just going to be sick,” the scientist reminded her gently, but it took several moments until Skye was finally able to force herself to put the bottle down again, desperate to quench the relentless thirst that had been her constant companion for the past few days.

Trying to control the urge to keep drinking, the hacker took a moment to study the SHIELD emblem staring at her from the plastic bottle in her hands. It had always astonished her that SHIELD actually had its own brand of water, but then again, that was probably the most harmless thing she had learned about the organisation since joining it.

A soft touch on her left arm suddenly pulled Skye out of her musings and she flinched unconsciously, but quickly pulled herself together again, as she realised that it was Jemma, who had taken a hold of her arm and was now about to jab a needle into her skin.

“What’s that for?”, Skye asked wearily, her mind rushing back to the time Jack had drugged her to knock her out.

“You’re completely dehydrated, Skye, so I’m hooking you up to an IV drip with an isotonic saline solution to restore your fluid balance more quickly. I would still recommend that you lie down-”

“Which isn’t going to happen,” Skye interrupted her resolutely, causing Simmons to roll her eyes at the stubbornness of her patient.

“Yes, alright, but even though you keep insisting that you don’t need to rest yet, I know that you have to be feeling exhausted. This will help.”

“Alright, fine,” Skye replied grudgingly, holding her arm out while taking another look at her surroundings, trying to take her mind off the needle in Simmons’ hand.

She was sitting on a gurney in the back of a SHIELD medical truck, only a small distance away from the perimeter that had been set up around the abandoned factory building earlier, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. The back doors of the truck were open, giving the hacker a good view of the front of the complex and the seemingly endless mass of SHIELD agents that were either coming out of it now or who were heading back here to the main base of operations from their earlier positions along the perimeter.

They had just gotten word that the last of the resisting Talos members had finally been detained and that the factory had now been declared secure. Large parts of the complex had already been cleared a while ago, allowing for medical treatment of the wounded on both sides, but now that the mission had officially been completed without any fatalities on SHIELD’s side, the relief among the agents was almost palpable.

Coulson and Fitz hadn’t left the building yet, but apparently the former had already contacted May to let her and the others know that they were on their way. After that, the specialist had left the group again on Coulson’s orders, but for some reason neither her nor any of the others had been willing to tell Skye what exactly those orders had been.

Now the only ones of her team left were Simmons, who was still hovering over her patient worriedly, and Ward, who was standing right outside the truck, and who hadn’t left Skye’s side for even a second ever since freeing her from her cell.

He had been watching in silence, as Jemma had examined the hacker for injuries and even though he had clearly been relieved that the dehydration and malnourishment were actually the worst physical repercussions left from her ordeal, the expression on his face had hardened noticeably as the biochemist had started treating the countless burn marks and bruises left on the young woman’s body.

Out here in the sunlight Skye’s condition seemed even worse than back in the dimly lit corridors of the factory, her complexion ashen and the colourful remnants of the torture she had had to endure sticking out even more, painfully reminding the specialist of just how long it had taken them to rescue her, every time he looked at the young woman.

His silence hadn’t gone unnoticed however and while Simmons was busy examining the cut on Skye’s left hand, the hacker turned to Ward, awkwardly trying to start a conversation.

“So…,” she began, not really knowing what to say at first, but then a small grin suddenly appeared on her lips, indicating that the young woman hadn’t completely lost her playful and often teasing nature despite what she had been through. “Tell me, Ward, just how much did you guys miss me, huh? I know I wasn’t really gone that long, but I bet life on the Bus was already dreadfully boring without me, right?”

Skye kept watching the specialist closely to see his reaction, but even though he obviously did his best not to let his emotions show, she could definitely see something she could only identify as pain and sadness underneath the almost stoic mask he always put on in front of people. She already regretted asking this rather tactless question, considering that her having been kidnapped couldn’t have been easy for the rest of her team, either, but when Skye was already about to say something, anything else to change the subject, Ward finally did answer, a faint smile on his lips softening his features.

“More than you know, Skye.” The young woman had expected some kind of teasing remark, ready to counter it with a witty comeback of her own, but the honesty in Ward’s eyes, as he now looked straight at her caught her completely off guard, leaving her to just return his gaze in silence, absolutely dumbfounded.

Her mouth opened slightly, as she tried to think of something to say, but the only sound she managed to make was a perplexed “Oh”, that made Ward smile even wider involuntarily. Despite the seriousness of the situation, seeing Skye speechless was something so extraordinary that he couldn’t help but register it as an achievement of sorts.

In the end it was Agent Simmons, who interrupted the moment, as she cleared her throat briefly and handed a silver wrapper to Skye, which the hacker opened hesitantly. Inside was what appeared to be some sort of cereal bar, although it didn’t look particularly appetizing, and as the young woman held it under her nose to smell it cautiously, she couldn’t make out any scent, causing her to look at it warily.

“What exactly is that?”, she asked, as she first looked up at Simmons, then at Ward as the latter let out a small laugh.

“It’s a field ration, specifically designed to be odourless so dogs can’t track it. I admit, it doesn’t taste too great, but it gets the job done.”

“So… it’s edible?”, Skye asked slowly, wanting to make sure.

“Just barely,” Ward replied with a grin, causing Simmons to finally chime in, shaking her head at the specialist.

“Oh, don’t listen to him, Skye! This is a highly nutritious concentrated food bar, a standard item in SHIELD’s field gear, and believe me, it tastes perfectly fine.”

The hacker took another long look at the bar, in spite of her hunger still not entirely convinced to eat it, until she finally broke off a piece and held it out to Jemma, who was still standing next to her.

“Wanna share then?”, she asked innocently, finally causing the scientist to lose her patience.

“No, Skye, I do not want to share! Going by your vitals, I know that you can’t have been given a lot of food, if any really, over these past three days, so you are extremely malnourished, which means that you need to stop making jokes and start eating. Now!”, she finished resolutely, completely startling both her patient and Ward, who was looking at her with one eyebrow raised in surprise.

Skye was already about to make a snarky reply, but as Simmons kept staring at her with a stern expression, she finally complied and put the piece of the food bar she had wanted to give to the scientist into her mouth instead, chewing it extensively to show that she was a good patient, who followed her doctor’s instructions.

As she finally swallowed her food down, she cringed slightly and looked up at Jemma, a teasing glint in her eyes.

“Yeah, now I know why you didn’t want to have a piece-”

“Skye!”

“Kidding, kidding, alright! It tastes fine, it’s just that, to be honest, all this time I didn’t really worry about food that much. Sure I was hungry, but the thirst was so much worse and the water I got was always just enough to keep me alive and fit enough to be questioned. And everything always came at a price.” Skye fell silent again, her temporary good mood quickly vanishing, as she recalled her time as a prisoner, causing Simmons to immediately regret her harsh tone.

“Oh, Skye, I’m so sorry, I didn’t even mean to get so angry with you, it’s just-”

“No, it’s alright,” the hacker quickly interrupted her, but even though she had obviously been about to say something more, she suddenly fell silent as something in the distance caught her attention.

As Ward followed her line of sight, he instantly realised what it was, as he, too, spotted the three medics who had just walked through the remains of the factory’s front gate, carrying an unmoving body on a gurney between them, while one of them was holding a respirator attached to the figure’s face. Agent Haze was walking beside them almost vigilantly, and even over the distance, one look at the man on the gurney, at his bruised and bloodied face, told Ward immediately that it was Curtis Tyler, who was obviously still alive, even though his heart had stopped beating earlier.

And despite his heavily distorted features, Skye had apparently recognised him, too, judging from the shocked expression on her face.

“Is that…” the young woman began hesitantly, as she shook off her blanket and slipped from her seat in the back of the truck to her feet. As she was about to approach the medics, she realised that the IV drip was still attached to her arm and quickly pulled in out almost absentmindedly, ignoring Jemma’s protests completely.

“Skye-”, Ward started, not really sure if it would be better to hold the hacker back or to let her go, but before he had made up his mind, she had already walked past him and was heading towards the small group now, the specialist following her warily, already suspecting that nothing good could come from this encounter.

Skye finally came to a halt next to the gurney and Agent Haze gave the medics a small signal to wait for a moment, as the young woman stared down at the man, who had made her life a living hell for the past few days. The hacker seemed to be completely thunderstruck, unable to say anything and so it was Ward, who spoke first, addressing Haze.

“How is he?”, he asked, scrutinising the result of his earlier fit of rage completely without remorse. It was the medic working the respirator however, who answered instead, his voice tense, as he kept focusing on his efforts to keep his patient breathing.

“His condition is still critical, but if we get him to the nearest hospital quickly, he might actually pull through. If you ask me, these guys all had it coming, but I’ll admit, this one’s a real fighter,” he declared, sounding almost impressed.

Ward merely nodded in reply, not really sure what to say to that, but then he looked at Skye, who still hadn’t said anything, and noticed the almost panicked expression on her face.

To calm her down, he gently laid a hand on the young woman’s shoulder, but she flinched heavily in response, as if she hadn’t even been aware of the agent’s presence next to her anymore. Ward’s eyebrows furrowed in concern and he slightly intensified his hold on the hacker, as he spoke to her as reassuringly as he could.

“He can’t hurt you anymore, Skye, he can’t hurt anyone ever again!”

This finally got the young woman’s attention, and she turned to look up at Ward, confusion in her eyes.

“What?”, she asked, slightly perplexed, prompting Ward to elaborate his words further.

“He admitted that he tortured you, Skye. His real name is Curtis Tyler, but I think he might have been calling himself ‘Jack’,” he explained, looking over at Agent Haze for confirmation, who nodded in reply.

Not really noticing this exchange, Skye just took another long hard look at the unconscious man in front of her, until she finally seemed to have made up her mind.

“But that’s not Jack, it can’t be!”, she exclaimed decisively, startling the two agents.

“What? Of course that’s him. What are you talking about, Skye?”, Ward asked, thoroughly puzzled at his rookie’s outburst. He was the one, who had beaten the blond man into his current state after all and he was sure that he hadn’t taken his anger out on the wrong person. However, Skye shook her head furiously as she continued.

“No, you don’t know him the way I do,” she protested vigorously, still not making sense to either Ward or Haze. “I’m sure that all of this is somehow a part of his plan. He did this before, you know, making me think that it was all over, that I was free, only to lock me back up in… in _there_.” She broke off for a second, shuddering visibly at the memory, but quickly pulled herself together again.

“But I’m not going back there this time, I won’t, alright, I-”

“Skye!”, Ward finally interrupted the young woman forcefully, before she could become any more panicked. He was holding her by the shoulders now and looked straight at her, trying to pull her back to reality.

“No one is going to lock you up again. You’re free, you’re safe and I made sure myself that that bastard is never going to lay his hands on you ever again. Understood?” He held Skye’s gaze for a long moment, but just as Ward already thought that his rookie had calmed down again, she suddenly backed away from him and only now did he realise that she had gotten a hold of his weapon.

“Skye, what are you doing?”, he asked quietly, managing to hide his shock almost completely, as he raised his hands slightly in a calming gesture.

“Protecting myself,” the now almost hysterical young woman replied, “because if I’d been able to do that sooner, none of this would have happened.” She didn’t really seem to know what she wanted to do with the gun yet, but Ward knew enough about PTSD to know that a person showing such crystal clear signs of it and a weapon did not go well together.

He briefly thought about simply trying to disarm Skye, but as that trick had been pretty much the first thing he had taught her, he knew that she would see it coming, and right now the last thing he wanted to do was to make her feel like she was being pushed into a corner. And as he knew that she didn’t mean any harm to him or the others, he chose to go with a friendlier approach this time.

“Alright, I get that, Skye, but this isn’t the way. When we’re back on the Bus I promise we’ll continue training, as soon as Simmons clears you and then I’ll teach you how to protect yourself. But you’re not on your own anymore. Right now there is an entire SHIELD strike force here to protect you,” _I’m here to protect you_ , he thought, but didn’t say it out loud, “so you don’t have to do it yourself.”

He was looking at Skye imploringly, doing his best to make her see that she was acting irrationally, but so far, the hacker didn’t seem willing to listen to him, as her grip on the gun only intensified.

Ward felt a pang of guilt in his chest, as he realised how little faith his rookie seemed to have left in him and the others, if she felt that she had to resort to something like this, but he knew that this wasn’t the time or place for apologies. He simply needed to make her understand that he and the whole team were there for her now and wouldn’t let anything happen to her again, so he continued with his efforts to convince her.

“I don’t know what happened, what he did to you,” he said, glancing over at Tyler, before focusing on Skye again, “but I know that he did not plan any of this. We’re here to rescue you, Skye, and by now everyone involved in your kidnapping is either dead or in custody, so you can stop worrying. There’s no-one left here to be afraid of.”

This time his words actually seemed to have reached their target, as Skye looked from Ward to the other SHIELD agents in the vicinity, most of which hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary yet. She also saw the large number of prisoners that were being escorted from the factory complex, but in the end her eyes settled on the unconscious man on the gurney in front of her again, her expression darkening visibly.

“None of the others ever did anything to me, it was all Jack. I thought I had the chance to kill him once, but at that time I was too afraid, too weak to realise that he was playing me.” Tears were stinging in her eyes at the memory, but she quickly wiped them away with her free hand.

“I don’t know if that’s really him or not, but if it is, then I’m going to make sure he’s really dead this time,” Skye suddenly declared coldly, aiming her gun at the unconscious mercenary. However, even though a part of him would have been glad to see Skye shoot Tyler, Ward found himself stepping in front of him without hesitation.

“Skye, you don’t want to do this! Believe me, I know he deserves it, but he’s finished. He’s going to spend the rest of his life in the Fridge, if he’s even going to survive his injuries, and he definitely isn’t worth getting his blood on your hands!” He tried to reason with the young woman, but Skye just shook her head, unwilling to lower the gun.

“Get out of my way, Ward,” she ordered, but as the agent didn’t move, they quickly found themselves at an impasse with neither of them willing to relent.

“Skye!”, a new familiar voice suddenly called from behind her, interrupting the stand-off and causing the young woman to spin around, reflexively aiming the gun in her hand at the person standing there. As she realised that it was Coulson however, she quickly lowered it again, so that she was now targeting the ground beneath them.

Her C.O. and Fitz, who was now standing behind the former, looking completely horrified, had just come out of the front of the factory building and were obviously taken completely off guard by the scene that was playing out in front of them. After quickly glancing at Ward and the other agents, Coulson focused again on Skye, knowing that he probably stood the best chance at ending this quickly.

“Skye, I don’t know what’s going on here right now, but I need you to hand over that gun, alright?”, he ordered gently, not wanting to antagonise the obviously panicked woman. He approached her now slowly, holding one hand out to her, prompting Skye to give him the weapon.

The young woman hesitated, but as her eyes moved from Coulson, who was watching her with a worried and concerned expression, to Fitz, who was looking back at her with something more akin to fear, she finally realised just how crazy her actions had to appear to the others.

Loosening her hold on the gun in her hand, she let Coulson take it from her without resistance and then just stood there, unmoving, until the older agent stepped directly in front of her and gently wrapped his arms around her, almost cradling the distraught looking woman against his chest.

“I’m so glad you’re okay, Skye,” he told her quietly, but it was as if she couldn’t even hear him.

“I don’t know why I just did that,” Skye muttered, still shell-shocked by her own actions. “I pointed a gun at you, at Ward…”

“It’s fine, Skye, nobody got hurt, you’re just a little… upset at the moment, that’s all.” That actually got a short humourless laugh out of the hacker, as she glanced up at Coulson in disbelief.

“‘Upset’? Try ‘unhinged’, maybe. I’m a total mess right now. You know, back when I was locked up in that room, I think I actually started hallucinating, and maybe I still am, maybe none of this is real and I’m going to wake up soon, alone in the dark again...” She continued talking, but by now her words had become completely unintelligible, as Skye was pressing her face against Coulson’s chest, sobbing uncontrollably.

He held her tightly, doing his best to make the young woman calm down again.

“Believe me, it is real. You’re safe,” the agent assured her, as he looked down at Skye for a moment, his expression stricken with grief at her desolate state, but he quickly composed himself again and looked over at the others. Ward, Simmons and Haze had all been watching the situation in silence, not really knowing what to say anyway. The medics and Jack were gone, as Haze had ordered them to take him to the helicopter waiting for them, the moment Skye had been disarmed, knowing that the more distance she brought between the two, the better it probably was for everyone.

“Simmons!”, Coulson now called out, while still not letting go of the shaking young woman in his arms. One look from her C.O. and the biochemist understood immediately what he wanted from her and after quickly getting something out of the medical truck, she approached the pair, taking advantage of the fact that Skye barely seemed to realise what was happening around her any longer.

She briefly glanced at Coulson for confirmation, and as he nodded in reply, Simmons stuck a needle in Skye’s arm, injecting her friend with a drug that would send her off to sleep within seconds.

“It’s alright, Skye, no-one’s going to harm you again,” she tried to reassure her, as she saw the startled expression on the hacker’s face, once she finally noticed what was going on. “You’ve been through a lot, but this will help you get some rest, alright?” All that Skye managed was a sluggish nod of her head, before she lost consciousness, going completely limp in Coulson's arms.

“And don’t worry, Skye, you’re not going to be alone when you wake up again,” the agent told his team’s rookie, even though he wasn’t sure if she could even still hear him or not.

**To be continued…**


	27. Responsibility

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially I had wanted to immediately jump forward to Skye waking up again on the Bus, but then I realised that there were just too many things that still needed to be addressed first, so I’m afraid our favourite hacker is going to sit (or rather sleep) this one out.

When Skye lost consciousness in Coulson’s arms, the entire group of agents that had just witnessed the scene seemed like paralysed, as the young woman’s episode had caught them all completely off guard.

Ward and Simmons, who had been talking with Skye almost light-heartedly only moments ago, were taken aback by how quickly and drastically her condition had changed, while Fitz and Coulson, who had both been desperately looking forward to seeing their team’s rookie again, were shocked to find her at the verge of a nervous breakdown, a loaded gun in her hand.

Even now that the situation had been resolved by Coulson talking the hacker down, the unspoken realisation that freeing Skye from her kidnappers had only been the first step on the possibly very long road to her recovery, weighed heavily on the team.

“Get her back over to the truck!”, Simmons suddenly ordered, disrupting the shell-shocked atmosphere and forcing everyone back into action. Ward quickly hurried forward and together, he and Coulson carried the hacker back the small distance to the medical truck, where Simmons had been examining her earlier. They placed her on the gurney gently and both men were obviously reluctant to leave her side, until Agent Simmons ordered them out resolutely, so she would have enough space to tend to her patient.

“What the _hell_ just happened,” Fitz finally vented his confusion, looking to both Ward and Haze for answers. “Why was Skye pointing a gun at us? Why did she even have a gun in the first place?”

Ward cringed at the second question, knowing that his carelessness had allowed the situation to get out of hand the way it had. After seeing his reaction and taking one look at Ward’s empty holster, Coulson now pulled the weapon in question out from behind his belt and held it out to the specialist, after making sure once more that the safety was still on.

“I take it this is yours,” he observed completely calmly, but his slightly furrowed brow told the younger agent all too clearly that he wasn’t the only one, who thought himself at least in part responsible for the disastrous turn this mission had almost just taken.

“Yes, it is. Sir, I am so sorry for what just happened. Skye was doing alright only a few minutes ago, Simmons was examining her, we were talking, everything seemed to be going well, but when they brought Tyler outside and she saw him, she… she just _lost it_. I don’t know what he did to her, but somehow Skye was convinced that all of this, the entire rescue was a part of his plans and she could be locked up again at any moment. I tried to convince her that she’s safe now, but apparently Skye wanted to make sure of that herself, as she took my gun to shoot the asshole. Not that I could blame her for the impulse, but of course I stopped her. She just didn’t take my interference that well. I’m just glad you showed up at that moment and were able to calm her down,” he admitted, still visibly shaken by the thought of what might have happened otherwise.

After listening to Ward’s explanation and scrutinising the agent in front of him for a moment, Coulson finally nodded, his expression softening noticeably.

“Yes, me, too. Let’s be glad that nobody got hurt, which is the most important thing, but I also think this incident just proved that it is about time we get Skye out of here. Simmons, how is she doing?”, he asked, turning to look up at the scientist, who was still examining their youngest team member.

“She’s sleeping soundly now and probably will be at least for a few more hours, maybe even longer given her exhausted state,” Simmons answered quickly, stepping closer to the back of the truck to face the rest of the team.

“I would still like to run a few more tests on Skye, but going by my earlier examination and her own statement, it’s safe to say that she didn’t suffer any physical injuries that would require transporting her to a hospital. I think the best we can do now is to get Skye back to the Bus, where hopefully the familiar surrounding will help her recuperate while I keep monitoring her medical condition.”

“Alright,” Coulson replied, nodding in agreement. “Give me five minutes to organise everything, then I’ll have the second helicopter take us back to the air field.”

“Yes, of course,” Jemma answered in turn, clearly eager to finally return to the plane. “I’ll have Skye ready for transport by then.” She immediately began packing up the supplies and equipment she wanted to take with her and went on to prepare her patient for the short journey back to their mobile home, while Ward stayed with them, offering to help with whatever Simmons or Skye needed.

Meanwhile Coulson looked over to the main command post they had established before entering the compound to see if Agent Welker, who had been leading the teams along the perimeter, was still there. Before he started walking in his direction though, he signalled Fitz and Haze to follow him, stopping again once they had gotten some distance from the medical truck and the rest of the team.

“I’m going to accompany Simmons and Ward when we bring Skye back to the Bus, at least for the moment. Agent May will hopefully be done with her assignment pretty soon, so she will oversee the transport of the prisoners and the search and seizure of everything Talos left behind in the factory. But I want you two to deal with their technical equipment. They seemed to have installed a pretty thorough surveillance system, so start with that,” Coulson ordered, knowing that the two agents in front of him were best suited to deal with this task.

“I know they destroyed a good amount of their servers, when they abandoned their computer centre, but salvage whatever data you can find. Security footage, logs, research data, everything. And while it wasn’t really a priority, when we still had to free Skye, I have to admit I’m pretty curious as to why Trevor Green was lying dead in Skye’s cell. Did she have something to do with his death or did one of his own men kill him? Find out what happened!”

Agent Haze’s mind now suddenly went back to the first time they had faced Tyler during the assault and how he had managed to escape by claiming to have killed his boss, in order to start an uproar among the other Talos members that would serve as a distraction. Back then she hadn’t paid much heed to his words, half assuming that he had been lying in a desperate attempt to get away, but if Green really was dead, then the mercenary might have been telling the truth after all.

She told all this to Coulson, as in the light of Skye’s rescue obviously nobody had mentioned this bit of information to him yet, causing the agent to pause in surprise.

He seemed to consider these new facts for a moment, before nodding his head slightly.

“Alright, find out if he was telling the truth, then. And it would still be interesting to know why he did it, so dig up what you can.”

Agent Haze nodded in reply, but while she was ready to head back into the compound, Agent Fitz seemed a lot more reluctant to follow the order. He glanced towards the medical truck, where he could only barely make out Skye’s unconscious form lying on the gurney in the back, before facing Coulson again, his expression torn.

“Sir, I understand that we have to keep investigating the scene, but wouldn’t it be better if the whole team stayed with Skye, you know, to support her?”

Coulson looked at the young man for a moment, a soft smile on his lips, as he understood his motivation for wanting to accompany the young woman back to the Bus all too easily, knowing that his own reasoning wasn’t that much different. However, it weren’t his abilities that were needed here on the ground right now, but the engineer’s technical skills.

“Fitz, you heard Simmons,” he repliedsympathetically, “Skye will be out for a few hours at least. There is nothing you can do for her right now, except keeping a clear head and the best way to do that is by staying busy. You saw the state of the surveillance room. They destroyed half the servers, but if anyone can still salvage the data, it’s you.”

Appealing to his professional pride seemed to do the trick, as Fitz finally nodded, his expression becoming more focused.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. And if we start working immediately, we’re going to be ready long before Skye even wakes up and then there’ll be all the time in the world to make sure she’s alright. And I already have a few ideas how to make sure to minimise data loss on the damaged servers, using parallel-connected hard drives and…” The engineer kept on detailing his strategy to rescue the data Coulson wanted from the partially damaged computer systems left behind by Talos, as he started walking back towards the factory with Agent Haze. Before they had made it very far however, Coulson suddenly called out to the latter, holding the female agent back once more.

“Agent Haze!” Both she and Fitz turned around in surprise, but as she realised that their C.O. obviously wanted to talk to her in private, she glanced back at the scientist, signalling him to keep walking.

“You should go on, I’ll catch up with you in a minute.” There was a brief moment of hesitation, but in the end Fitz simply respected SHIELD’s way of compartmentalising information too much to object to being kept out of the loop. Instead he just nodded and resumed walking towards the front entrance of the factory again, leaving Haze and Coulson on their own.

“Sir?”, the computer expert asked in surprise at this sudden secrecy, a feeling that only intensified, as Coulson waited with his answer until he was sure that Agent Fitz was out of earshot. When he finally spoke, his voice and expression remained completely professional, but there was a trace of sadness in his eyes, betraying his emotions.

“As I said before, I want the surveillance tapes from the complex, but mostly those from Skye’s cell. If we want to help her get through this, we need to know what they did to her, no matter how painful it might be for us to watch her getting hurt. But I don’t want Fitz to see it. In fact, at this time only you, Agent May and myself are allowed access to these videos, no one else, understood?”

“Of course,” Agent Haze agreed quickly, not surprised that Coulson wanted to keep the good-natured scientist from having to watch one of his best friends being tortured. “I’ll make sure nobody sees them.”

Having seen the fallout of Curtis Tyler’s work herself a few times by now, she wasn’t too keen on watching him torment Skye, either, but she knew that her distance to the young woman would make it a lot easier for her to see it, than for the rest of the team, including both Agent May and Agent Coulson himself.

As she was obviously dismissed at this point, Agent Haze was already about to head back inside the factory now, too, and follow Agent Fitz, but then she suddenly remembered something and turned back around, addressing her superior once more, obviously uncomfortable with what she was about to say.

“Sir, just one more thing. I know this should be my responsibility, as I made the promise to her, but someone should tell Olivia what happened to her brother. He might still not make it and she deserves to know what’s going on. After all, I’m not sure if we would have found Skye without her help.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to her. Cleaning this place up might take a while and I guess it’s better to get it over with now,” Coulson agreed, his expression grim as he realised that now that the rescue mission was over, he would also have to decide what to do with the forger, who was still waiting in the Bus’ interrogation room.

Given her criminal history and her rather cruel attitude during her interrogation, he had half a mind to simply hand her over to the FBI or local police, but he couldn’t deny that she had given them the crucial information that had allowed them to find Skye’s location and he felt like they owed her for that.

“You just focus on your job here, I’ll deal with Tyler’s sister,” he finished, indicating to Agent Haze that the conversation was over, before heading in the direction of the main command post to make the last arrangements before he took Skye and part of his team back to the Bus.

 

* * *

 

The lab of the Bus hadn’t exactly been designed as a medical ward and the cold glass surface of the table in the centre was hard and uncomfortable, which was why Simmons and Ward had collected a few blankets to spread over it, before the latter lifted Skye from the gurney and placed her on top of it gently.

He hated seeing her like this, disturbingly pale and completely still, with the IV drip connected to her arm once again only intensifying her vulnerable appearance. Ward had always felt incredibly protective of the young woman, starting from their very first mission, but right now it was like he could never even bear to leave her side again, simply for the fear of anyone hurting her if he wasn’t there to prevent it.

He had failed her before, left her alone, doubted her and back in that cell in Talos’ hideout, he had seen the true scale of what his actions, or rather in-actions, had caused and he had vowed to himself that he would never let anything or anyone hurt Skye again.

“Ward, I’m sorry, but I really need some space to work here, please.” Simmons’ voice abruptly pulled him back out of his thoughts and the specialist suddenly realised that he had been crowding the biochemist, while she was trying to tend to her patient. He apologised quickly and then stepped back to give her more room, but at this point Coulson spoke up, demanding his attention.

“Ward, I actually wanted to talk to you, and as I think Simmons doesn’t really need an audience right now, this is probably as good a time as any.” Seeing the younger man’s reluctance to leave Skye’s side, he added gently, “It will only take a moment.”

“Alright,” Ward finally agreed and followed his C.O. out into the cargo hold. Coulson quietly closed the doors to the lab behind them and then crossed his arms in front of his chest, simply watching the specialist in silence for a while.

“Sir, what’s this about?”, the agent finally asked, beginning to feel slightly uncomfortable under his superior’s scrutinising gaze.

“What exactly happened back at the factory? You had your orders regarding Tyler, to capture him alive under all circumstances, but going by the state of your hands, it’s not a really hard guess to figure out who’s responsible for what happened to him.” Coulson paused briefly, but as Ward didn’t seem willing to talk yet, he continued, shaking his head in disappointment.

“Believe me, after seeing Skye’s condition for myself, I more than understand your anger, but that still doesn’t give you the right to disobey my orders and turn Tyler into your personal punching bag. Now I have to go and explain to his sister, who helped us under the _one single condition_ that we spare her brother’s life, why one of my own men almost beat him to death. So I ask you, Agent Ward, what do I tell her?”

He looked at the specialist expectantly, obviously waiting for him to defend himself and his actions, prompting him to finally say something.

When Ward did reply however, it wasn’t exactly what he had expected.

“Just tell her the truth,” he answered curtly, but that was clearly not good enough for Coulson.

“And what exactly would that be, ‘ _the truth’_?”, he demanded to know, not willing to let Ward off the hook that easily.

“That he _wanted_ to die,” the younger agent finally replied matter-of-factly, completely startling his superior.

“What?”, Coulson asked, effectively dumbfounded, forcing Ward to explain himself further.

“Well, I guess Tyler’s not the type to just put a bullet in his own head, but going by his actions, by what he _said_ , he’s either completely insane, or he _wanted_ me to kill him, probably to avoid being captured.

I mean, I had a gun on him and suddenly he started telling me that Skye was dead, that he was the one who killed her and… and how much she had suffered before she died. If you ask me, he’s better off now than he deserves to be.” Recalling his confrontation with the mercenary had Ward visibly shaken and realisation dawned on Coulson’s face, as he was suddenly able to make sense of the specialist’s behaviour just prior to Skye’s rescue. He looked at the younger agent sympathetically, knowing himself well enough to know that he might actually have reacted the exact same way in his position.

“When you came into the surveillance room, just before Fitz found Skye’s location, you still thought she was dead, didn’t you?”, he finally asked quietly, now understanding the anguished look on Ward’s face in that moment.

“Yes,” the agent admitted reluctantly, knowing that he hadn’t exactly shown his most professional behaviour during the mission.

“When Tyler escaped and I followed him, I had every intention to take him in alive. When he attacked me, I only shot him in the shoulder to disarm him, but when I wanted him to give me Skye’s location, he started mocking me with her death and I’ll admit, I just couldn’t take it. I wasn’t going to just let him get away with what he did to her. Of course at the time I had no idea that he was lying.”

As he fell silent again, Coulson continued to watch the younger agent quietly for a moment, although his expression wasn’t scrutinising as before, but understanding.

“Alright,” he finally nodded, obviously satisfied with Ward’s explanation. “I’ll go talk to Olivia now and tell her what happened. She won’t be happy, but technically, we didn’t even break our promise to her. Her brother is alive after all, and she never specified his condition further.”

Coulson laid his hand on Ward’s shoulder briefly before heading up the spiral staircase in the cargo hold, his mood visibly improved. He had been somewhat shocked, when he had seen the condition Tyler had been in after the operation was over, but now that he knew what had happened, he wasn’t going to feel regret for something the mercenary had clearly brought upon himself. Especially not after having seen the injured and desperate state he had left Skye in.

After watching Coulson vanish upstairs, Ward opened the door to the lab again and entered slowly, careful not to disturb either doctor or patient. Simmons was holding a wet piece of cloth in her hand and had obviously just begun to carefully clean Skye’s face, wiping away the sweat, grime and tears of the past few days.

“Can I stay?”, he asked quietly, feeling like he was intruding on a private moment between the two women. Jemma smiled softly, as she turned to look at him, clearly not seeing his presence as a disturbance.

“Of course, I don’t see why not. And I know that Skye would feel better immediately if she knew you were here.”

“Thanks,” Ward replied, grateful for both her permission and her kind words. He went over to the table in the corner and sat down on one of the chairs there, continuing to watch Simmons tend to the young hacker. The smeared remains of three days old mascara disappeared from Skye’s face under Jemma’s soft touch, just like the occasional flakes of dried blood, but the bruises on her skin and the cut on her lip remained, looking now even more out of place on the young woman’s innocent and almost angelic features.

When the biochemist continued to clean Skye’s hands, arms and neck, Ward finally found that he had to turn away, as he couldn’t bear looking at the countless burn marks that were left all over her skin. On a mission a few years ago, he had found himself on the wrong side of an electro shock device once, but only for a few minutes until he had been able to overpower his attacker. To think that Skye had been in that much pain for hours or even days, while being tied to that chair the way he had found her… it was completely inconceivable.

In the end he found himself staring down at his own hands instead, which were actually hurting a lot ever since the beating he had given Tyler, but he had simply been too preoccupied so far to really pay any attention to it. While he had cleaned off most of the blood already, there were still dark red spots all over his hands, and his knuckles, especially on the right, were bloodied and bruised, the skin cracked open everywhere. The few small cuts he had received from angrily punching the bathroom mirror, after finding out the truth about Skye’s disappearance weren’t even visible any longer, as they were completely covered by the new, much larger wounds.

Ward kept looking at his hands in silence, completely lost in his thoughts and unaware of anything that was happening around him. When Simmons’ soft voice finally pulled him back to reality, he had no idea how much time had passed, but by the looks of it, Jemma had already finished her work a while ago.

“You should really let me treat that,” she said sympathetically, as she looked down at Ward’s hands as well. She was standing directly in front of him now and the fact alone that he hadn’t noticed her approach earlier, told the specialist just how out of it he had really been.

“Yeah, sure,” he replied absentmindedly, still not entirely focused again. He sat completely still as Jemma collected her supplies, pulled a second chair next to him and began cleaning and bandaging his wounds.

“You think I overdid it?”, he suddenly asked, slightly startling the scientist. She remained silent for a long moment, thinking about the question. In the end she replied in a rather light-hearted, scolding manner, obviously trying hard not to dwell on the events back in the factory for too long.

“Well, open wounds like these are an easy way of contracting all kinds of infections, so from a medical point of view I can definitely say that you clearly used an excessive amount of force when you took out Skye’s kidnapper.”

Ward looked at her rather sceptically, one eyebrow raised slightly, as they both knew that it wasn’t the state of his hands he was talking about. Before he could say anything though, Jemma continued, her voice barely audible this time, as she glanced over at Skye’s still unconscious form.

“But I believed him, too. I thought she was dead.” She turned her head to face Ward again, her eyes glinting almost unnoticeably.

“I’m not saying what you did was right, but I understand it. I’m just glad that it’s all over now and I actually hope that Tyler survives. He isn’t worth that you get in trouble for his death.” With that she stood back up again, having finished with wrapping up the wounds on Ward’s hands.

As Simmons went on to silently work on some of her other projects, she didn’t even notice the surprised look on the specialist’s face. After having been so completely focused on Skye and her condition for the past few hours, the idea that his attack on Curtis Tyler might actually have consequences for him, especially if the mercenary died, hadn’t even crossed his mind.

Simmons did have a point however, because despite his cruel and taunting words, and the fact that he had clearly meant to provoke an attack, Skye’s kidnapper had in fact been unarmed and injured when Ward had started beating him within an inch of his life. And no matter how sympathetic Coulson had been towards his actions earlier, he wasn’t sure if his C.O. would be able to protect him from the fallout should Tyler die after all.

**To be continued…**


	28. The Heart

As Agent Coulson headed towards the interrogation room, he couldn’t help but feel conflicted about the conversation he was going to have with their prisoner. On the one hand, he had not the slightest bit of compassion for Curtis Tyler after everything he must have done to Skye in order for her to break down the way she had earlier, or for his sister, who had made her disdain for SHIELD and everyone associated with it more than clear during her interrogation. That and her clear lack of compassion for her brother’s victims had left Coulson with very little sympathy for the red headed woman, despite her ultimate willingness to cooperate.

On the other hand however, as he had agreed to the deal Agent Haze had made with the forger, he felt obligated to uphold it, if he didn’t want to be in her dept, and he knew that the reassurance he had just given to Agent Ward was nothing more than a shady trick, splitting hairs to ignore his own responsibility on the matter.

As he finally entered the room, he hadn’t even laid eyes on the young woman yet, as her angry voice suddenly pierced the silence.

“And here I thought you people had actually forgotten I existed, what with letting me sit here and wait for hours without telling me shit! _I_ didn’t do anything to you or your agents, I was minding my own damn business, when you dragged me into this and then I even _helped_ you, so how about you start treating me with some fricking common decency, okay?”

Agent Coulson didn’t respond to the forger’s furious rant and did his best to keep his expression neutral, as he closed the door behind him and sat down opposite from her, but apparently something about him must have given away the fact that he had come to deliver bad news, because Olivia’s eyes suddenly widened and the briefest flicker of pain passed over her features as she fell silent.

A part of her obviously didn’t allow her to show any form of weakness in front of the SHIELD agent though, and so she quickly composed herself again, putting on an almost perfect mask of indifference.

“So he’s dead then?”, she asked, looking at Coulson for confirmation.

The agent remained quiet for a moment, studying the young woman’s reaction, trying to make sense of it.

“No,” he finally answered truthfully, but the forger clearly remained wary of the seemingly good news.

“But?”, she supplied, anxious to hear the whole truth.

“ _But_ he has been severely injured. Apparently he goaded one of my men into attacking him, thinking he could avoid imprisonment that way.”

Tyler’s sister didn’t reply immediately, needing a moment to let the news sink in.

“I guess there was no way for him to get out?”, she finally asked, trying to make sense of her brother’s actions.

“None that I could think of, no, we had the place completely surrounded,” Coulson replied honestly.

“Then that does sound like him. Idiot,” Olivia muttered quietly, more to herself than to Coulson, and for a short moment the agent actually expected her to break out into tears, but then the young woman’s expression hardened again, and she looked at him angrily.

“Well, thanks for telling me, I guess, but where’s your other agent? Didn’t she have the guts to tell me herself how she lied to me, played me? We had a deal and I told her that I would hold her responsible if she broke it.”

The open threat hung in the air for just a second, but that was all the time Agent Coulson needed to lose any compassion for the red headed woman he might have developed over the past few minutes, after seeing her reaction to her brother’s condition.

He had just freed one member of his team from being abused and tortured by Curtis Tyler, he was not going to listen to his sister threatening another, even if she was only on the Bus temporarily.

“Agent Haze is busy right now, cleaning up the mess your brother made, but I’m actually sure that she’ll want to talk to you herself once she gets the chance, because despite the fact that your brother is a sociopathic monster, who deserved far worse than what my agent did to him, I believe that she actually feels bad for violating the deal she made with you, even though as long as he lives, you’ll get what you asked for, nothing more, nothing less.

And just so that you don’t misunderstand me, _I_ don’t care if your brother dies. If he does however, and you suddenly decide to attack Agent Haze or any other agent under my command in revenge, if you even so much as _think_ about laying a finger on anyone working for SHIELD, I will personally have you locked up in the cell I had reserved for him and throw away the key.

Now nod if you understand me,” he finished, seeing as the red headed woman was completely dumbfounded by his little speech.

As she finally complied and nodded her head briefly, Coulson leaned back in his chair and relaxed again visibly, before standing up and heading towards the door.

“Good,” he simply noted, but before he could leave the room, Olivia’s voice held him back once more, any trace of anger or defiance gone and replaced by genuine sadness.

“Can I see him?”, she asked, looking up at Coulson almost pleadingly, as she continued.

“Curtis will either die or you’re going to lock him up for the rest of his life in some top secret SHIELD facility, so no matter what happens, this will probably be the last time I’ll have a chance to see my brother, so can I please visit him?”

Coulson knew that he had no obligation to allow this, neither to Olivia nor to her brother, but despite the fact that the young woman had threatened one of his agents only moments ago, he could feel his anger dissipating at the sight of her desperation and so he ultimately nodded in agreement.

“Alright, I’ll send someone to escort you to the hospital,” he told her, before finally leaving the interrogation room, intent on heading back to the lab to see how Skye was doing.

 

* * *

 

While the room serving as the surveillance centre of Talos’ hideout had not actually seen any combat during SHIELD’s assault on the factory, many of the computers and servers in it were riddled with bullet holes, after the fleeing members of the group had tried to destroy the surveillance system and their data before the attacking agents got a hold of it. While Agent Fitz had already managed to get the cameras in the compound back to work during the search for Skye, getting access to the organisation’s database, including any recordings from the surveillance system, proofed to be a lot more challenging, as many of the hard drives storing the data had been at least partially damaged.

So far, he and Agent Haze had dismantled all the systems in the room and removed the drives that were too badly damaged to access immediately, putting them in special crates to be transported back to the Bus later. For now they were still busy trying to get the remaining computers back to work, removing broken parts and connecting the rest to bypass what was missing.

“Alright,” Agent Fitz stated, after connecting the last of the electric cables to a portable generator, “this should do it. Are you getting anything?”, he asked, looking over at Agent Haze, who was sitting in front of one of the monitors.

“Yes,” the computer expert replied, her expression extremely focused, “the system is rebooting, just give me a second.”

As he was apparently done with setting up the hardware, Fitz walked over to join Haze, looking over her shoulder, as the computer came to life, the stream of data that passed over the screen ultimately ending with a small box prompting the entry of a password. The female agent didn’t need long to get past it however, and after a few moments of finding her way through Talos’ system, she had access to their entire database, or at least to all the files that hadn’t been stored on the damaged hard drives they had removed earlier.

With Agent Coulson’s order in mind, that the surveillance videos from Skye’s cell had absolute priority for him, Agent Haze went through the different folders in the databank, until she had found the right one. Instead of opening any of the video logs right away however, she connected a flash drive to the computer and started copying the files in question. She would have liked to take a look at the footage immediately, but as Agent Coulson had made it perfectly clear, that the access to it was restricted to the two of them and Agent May, and Agent Fitz was still standing behind her, she stopped herself from following her curiosity.

As the engineer had no idea about that particular order yet, though, he looked down at the computer expert in front of him with a slight frown.

“Those are the recordings of the camera in Skye’s cell, aren’t they? Don’t you think we should take a look at them? They would obviously tell us what Tyler did to Skye, and as Green’s body was lying in the room with her, it means that we pretty much have to watch those tapes if we want to find out what happened to him.”

Fitz was obviously trying to sound equally interested in both aspects the surveillance videos would shed some light on, but Haze was pretty sure that given his still apparent concern for Skye, he was far more curious about what she had been through these last few days than about finding any information on the fate of Talos’ late leader.

She remained silent for a moment, as she thought about her answer, but when she finally replied to the engineer, it was clearly not what he had expected to hear.

“Yes, I know, but the thing is that you don’t have the clearance level to see these files, Agent Fitz. Agent Coulson has declared all the video files from Talos’ database that include Skye as level 7 classified, so I’m sorry, but I’ve got my orders. Maybe I can find something interesting in the recent activity logs, though, so just give me a moment,” she said diplomatically and started typing again.

She knew perfectly well of course, that Coulson’s request not to let Fitz or anyone else watch the videos from Skye’s imprisonment had been less about security clearance and more about the emotional fallout that could come from witnessing their team mate and friend being tortured, but she was hoping that by invoking SHIELD’s classification hierarchy, she could get him to back down from the issue.

However, while Agent Fitz had always accepted SHIELD’s system of handling information, even though that same system had almost left him and Ward stranded in enemy territory without an extraction plan not too long ago, he was completely dumbfounded at being kept out of the investigation at this point.

“What? No, that’s ridiculous, that’s not even how we do things on the Bus. At least not most of the time. And this is about Skye, so I don’t care if I don’t have the right clearance level, if I can do something, anything that might be able to help her, I’m not going to be kept out of the loop!”

Agent Haze looked at the young man for a moment, actually speechless, before a soft smile appeared on her lips, dissipating some of his anger.

“Trust me, Agent Fitz, you don’t have to see what Tyler did to Skye to be able to help her, that’s not going to do you or her any good,” she assured the scientist, looking up at him from her seat with sympathy in her eyes.

“Skye just went through something completely horrible and the time ahead of her isn’t going to be easy, either, but I’ve seen how much you and your team care for her. All you can do is to support her the best you can, then I’m sure it’s just a matter of time until she makes a full recovery.” She paused for a moment at this, looking at Fitz thoughtfully before continuing in a soft tone. “I know Agent Ward and even some of the others fell for Tyler’s set-up, that Skye betrayed you, but you didn’t doubt her for a second, did you?”

“No,” Fitz replied with a faint shake of his head, the mere idea still unthinkable. “I knew it had to be a lie, because Skye isn’t just an integral part of this team, she’s the heart of our group, really.” He knew that that was an extremely sappy thing to say, but the scientist didn’t care. It was the truth after all.

“Then make sure that she knows that, too,” Agent Haze advised him before finally turning back to the monitor, intend on finding some more information about Talos that would help them wrap up this mission.

“Right now, Skye probably doesn’t have all that much faith in herself, or anything, really, so you and your team will have to believe in her even more.” She fell silent after this and concentrated on the task in front of her while Fitz just nodded, not really knowing what to answer her anyway.

It remained completely quiet in the room for a few minutes, except from the tapping of swift fingers on the keyboard, but then Agent Haze finally seemed to have found something that could be of interest to the team.

“Here, this looks like the recording of a video call,” she told Fitz, indicating the monitor. “And according to the time stamp, that was only minutes before we got here.”

“Who were they talking to?”, the engineer asked, slightly surprised. “Do you think there could still be other Talos members out there, who weren’t here when we took out their hideout?”

“Only one way to find out,” Haze answered and quickly proceeded to open the file. The image of a beautiful dark-skinned woman wearing a colourful dress appeared on the screen, obviously addressing one of the Talos members.

_“I’d like to speak to the Colonel, if that can be arranged. I have some very urgent business to discuss with him.”_ Despite the seriousness of her words, the woman’s voice was soft and gentle and a small smile played around the corners of her mouth, giving her an incredibly warm presence even though she had to be in a powerful position, if she could contact the leader of Talos this easily.

Haze and Fitz watched her eagerly, as she fell silent for a few moments, obviously waiting for the man she wanted to talk to, before finally continuing.

_“Yes, he has, but I'm afraid I have to inform you that it has not been in your favour. The Clairvoyant has seen that the future of your organisation will be extremely short-lived and that there would be no point in pursuing this alliance any further.”_

“Too bad we’re hearing only half of the conversation,” Fitz remarked, clearly annoyed by the fact that the woman’s answer was missing its proper context.

“Yes, but it almost sounds as if she already knew about our assault on Talos’ hideout, before we even got here. Or what else could she mean by ‘short-lived’?”

_“I mean,”_ the woman on the monitor continued, startling both agents with the timing of her reply, “ _that he has seen our mutual enemies heading to your location as we speak.”_

“Whoa,” Fitz simply said, completely taken aback for a moment. “How could she possibly have known about our rescue mission for Skye, and who the hell is that ‘Clairvoyant’ she’s talking about? Clairvoyance doesn’t even exist!”, the scientist exclaimed almost angrily, but as if to prove her knowledge of SHIELD’s plans beyond any doubt, the woman now answered her invisible dialogue partner.

_“Yes, and they are coming with a large number of agents. Their attack will be quick and decisive and I'm afraid the Clairvoyant does not see a future for your organisation after today.”_

“Well, however that ‘Clairvoyant’ did it, you can’t argue that he knew a lot about our strategy.”

Fitz was obviously about to protest against Haze’s indication that she might be willing to believe in something like psychic powers, as the woman in the flower dress spoke again, looking almost tranquil in her unwavering belief.

_“Oh, but he does. The Clairvoyant sees everything and he has seen your future as clear as day, what's left of it anyway.”_

“‘ _The Clairvoyant sees everything_ ’,” Fitz repeated mockingly in a sing-song voice obviously meant to mimic that of the dark haired woman, actually rolling his eyes in the process. “Now if that’s not the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard, I don’t know what is. There’s no such thing as psychic powers; no mind-readers, no clairvoyants! Fairytales and superstition, that’s all that is.”

_“Wait, there is one more thing”_ , the woman suddenly continued, prompting Fitz to answer her as if she were actually talking to him.

“What, you’re going to tell us that fairies and unicorns are real, too?” This finally managed to get a small chuckle from Agent Haze, who had become increasingly amused at the engineer’s outburst, realising that the mere belief in something that was so clearly contradicting his scientific worldview was like a red rag to him.

However, when the woman’s soft voice came from the speakers once more, she immediately sobered up again, focusing back on the monitor.

_“‘Jack’, was it, right?”_ The woman paused only briefly, probably waiting for the mercenary to reply to her and then continued.

_“Well, I have told the Clairvoyant how impressed I was with your work and he promised me that in case you manage to avoid being captured by SHIELD today, that he is willing to find a place for you in his organisation. So maybe I will be in touch,”_ she finished with a warm smile and then ended the video call, causing the screen to go dark again.

“Huh, looks like her precious Clairvoyant doesn’t see everything, after all,” Fitz remarked smugly, crossing his arms in front of his chest as he kept looking at the monitor, despite the image of the woman in the flower dress having vanished already.

“That bastard is going to spend the rest of his life in the Fridge for what he did to Skye, but of course she would have known that if her ‘Clairvoyant’ wasn’t such a clear fraud. I mean, SHIELD has been keeping an eye out for people with special powers for decades and not even _once_ did they manage to find anyone with real psychic abilities. Anyone claiming to have them is just a phoney, conning people into thinking they were legit.”

“Well, whoever that woman was, she might not have known _everything_ , but still more than enough to make her dangerous. I’ll believe in a genuine clairvoyant when I see one with my own eyes, but until then this sounds more as if whoever has warned her about our attack has been leaking information from inside SHIELD,” Agent Haze replied, her expression obviously worried.

 

* * *

 

Agent May was standing in the doorway of the room they had rescued Skye from only a few hours ago, taking in the almost empty space, the bare brick walls and most of all, the solid chair that was standing in the centre of the room, its legs bolted to the floor, remnants of the duct tape used to restrain the young woman still sticking to the metal.

There was a puddle of blood on the floor, where they had found Trevor Green’s body and also some on the chair, but it was impossible to tell if the latter had come from the Talos leader as well, or if it was the hacker’s blood.

After Agent May had stood like this for a few minutes, her expression grim, but otherwise devoid of emotion, she suddenly moved forward, closing the door behind her, and, careful not to step into the blood, slowly sat down in the chair, taking a deep breath in the process.

May had seen Skye’s condition first hand during the rescue, both the utter desperation while still being tied up and the unstable mix of happiness and confusion she had displayed after being freed. She also did know a thing or two about trauma herself, but if she wanted to really understand what the team’s rookie was going through right now, especially after what Fitz and Haze had told her about what had happened outside the factory earlier, she needed to understand what she had went through first.

Finding the video recordings of Skye’s imprisonment was an important step, as was talking to the young woman herself, as soon as she was ready to face what had happened to her, but May found that true understanding of someone’s actions and emotions was achieved most easily by actually putting oneself into the same situation and assuming that person’s point of view.

Not that that was always a viable option, but right now, as she sat where Skye had been sitting, gripping the cold metal armrests tightly, like the young hacker must have done countless times with all other movement having been made impossible due to her restrains, she could feel a coldness starting to spread inside her chest and it wasn’t coming from the room’s temperature.

In a final effort to make the experience as close to Skye’s as possible, the specialist closed her eyes, using her other senses to take in her surroundings.

Even though there were still other SHIELD agents in the factory, with the door closed, Agent May couldn’t hear anything, instantly increasing her feeling of isolation. The metal chair beneath her was cold and uncomfortable, and the hard edges of the armrests were cutting into her skin painfully, as she was gripping them tightly.

It was rather cold in the room, and even though Agent May didn’t mind, due to her more than sufficient clothing, she knew that Skye must have been freezing in the thin top she had been wearing when they had found her. The air was filled with the smell of dust and machine oil, but also the vaguely metallic odour of blood, stemming from the puddle on the ground.

May kept her eyes closed for another long moment, trying to imagine her surroundings from a rookie’s perspective and not that of a seasoned agent, who had been hurt more times in the line of duty than she cared to remember. If she wanted to know how Skye had felt sitting in this chair, she had to forget her training and her years of experience, and allow her deepest fears to come to life, just like the young woman must have been confronted with hers in here.

The thought of Skye having been locked up in this room, Tyler interrogating and torturing her, all the while the team had been absolutely clueless about her fate, was making the specialist feel nauseas, and just the briefest image of the mercenary attacking the defenceless woman with an electro shock device enough times to cause the countless burn marks left on her skin was finally enough to make Agent May’s eyes snap back open instantly.

Clearly having had enough of the experience, she got up from the chair again and left the room in a hurry, decisively heading towards the next stairwell, where a small group of agents was waiting for her, a body bag lying on the ground beside them.

As soon as the specialist approached them, her outward appearance not betraying anything of her rattled state, she gave them a signal to move out, causing the men to pick up the heavy bag without saying a word and following her as she led them out of the factory.

 

* * *

 

Skye wasn’t dreaming. Despite the traumatic events she had been through, her body had been too exhausted to dream to begin with and as her consciousness had been dragged under by the tranquillising effects of whatever drug Simmons had injected her with, the young woman was sleeping like a stone, finally getting the rest she had needed so desperately.

As she finally did wake up, it was completely quiet around her, but for Skye the lack of noise was anything but welcome. For a fleeting second she even thought herself back in her prison, completely isolated from the rest of the world, but as her eyes flew open in fear, she found herself back on the Bus instead, lying on the holo table in the middle of the lab.

Clearly relieved, the young woman took a moment to gather herself before sitting up slowly, pushing away the blanket that had been placed on top of her, shortly followed by pulling out the IV drip, which had been attached to her arm once again. It had been almost empty anyway, so she figured that Jemma probably wouldn’t mind if she freed herself from the needle embedded in her arm.

The young woman briefly wondered about the soft surface she had been lying on, but as she now noticed she was on top of several more blankets that had been laid out on the table, obviously intended to allow her to rest more comfortably. She smiled a little at the thought, touched by the care her team mates had been showing for her.

As Skye now looked around to see if any of them were there however, she noticed to her surprise that she was completely alone in the lab. She tried looking out into the cargo hold, but the glass doors, instead of being transparent as usual, had taken on a milky white colour, blocking her view. She paused briefly, as she hadn’t even been aware that they could do that, but of course it made sense that the lab in a SHIELD facility, even a mobile one, could be hidden from prying eyes.

The hacker wasn’t really sure if she was glad about her solitude or not. On one hand she didn’t want to be alone, not after how much she had come to hate her solitary confinement over the past few days and how much she had missed her team mates in particular, but on the other hand it did give her a moment to gather her thoughts and to actually get her head around the fact that her imprisonment was over and she was safe again.

Skye remembered the aftermath of her rescue, before she had somehow lost consciousness, all too clearly, and she felt deeply ashamed for losing control the way she had, resulting in her almost attacking her own friends in an irrational and senseless attempt to protect herself from Jack.

Her thoughts wandered back to the heavily injured and defenceless man she had seen being carried out of the factory earlier and a part of her still couldn’t believe that that had been the same person, who had kidnapped and tortured her, causing her so much pain and suffering. With all the tricks and manipulations he had pulled on her while she had been at his mercy, seeing him so completely and utterly defeated had been as much a welcome surprise as it had just seemed to be absolutely impossible.

Skye would have thought that he could have managed to find a way to escape, even with SHIELD attacking Talos’ hideout, but then again, she had probably underestimated the determination of her team to take down all of those responsible for her kidnapping.

At least that was what she chose to believe was the reason for his capture, but she had to admit that the fact that she was alone right now and none of her team mates were with her to welcome her home, so to say, did put a slight damper on that idea. The young woman knew that it was ridiculous to expect the others to wait at her bedside for hours without any definite knowledge of when she would wake up again, but a part of her was still disappointed to realise that not even one of them had kept vigil over her.

Swinging her legs from the table, Skye finally stood up, now noticing that she was still in the clothes she had worn during her imprisonment, minus the shoes and socks that had been soaked in blood earlier. She could tell that her hands and arms were cleaner than before, and that the few minor injuries she had sustained had been treated, but she was still wearing the pink top she had almost shredded in an effort to make a bandage for the cut in her hand, and while it wasn’t as cold in the lab as it had been in her cell in the factory, she still began to freeze slightly.

That was when she noticed one of her cardigans hanging over the back of a chair and she put it on immediately, glad that one of her team mates had apparently shown enough foresight to get it for her. Just as she was about to leave the lab and go to see if she could find the rest of her team somewhere on the Bus however, the door to the storage room suddenly opened, revealing Agent Simmons, who had obviously just gotten a few new supplies and who was now just as surprised as Skye to see her patient up and about.

“Oh, Skye, you’re awake!”, the scientist awkwardly stated the obvious, a smile beginning to tug at the corners of her lips. “I wasn’t entirely sure when you would wake up again; I mean, I could estimate the duration of the sedative, of course, but as you were so exhausted, it was hard to tell, really. I’m so sorry I wasn’t here, I was just in the back, getting a new bag for the IV drip…,” she trailed off briefly, as she noticed that Skye had already removed the needle from her arm, “which I can see you already got rid of. Oh, well,” she sighed in defeat, putting the bag with the clear liquid in her hand down on the table next to her. When she turned around to Skye again and continued though, her face had taken on an almost ashamed expression.

“I just hope you know how sorry I am for sedating you in the first place. I know this probably wasn’t how you wanted to return to the Bus, but you had gotten so worked up earlier, it seemed to be the safest solution for everyone.” But Skye shook her head as she replied, making sure that the scientist knew she wasn’t blaming her.

“Seriously, you don’t have to apologise for that, Jemma. I know I must have scared you and the others with the way I was acting, _especially_ when I took Ward’s gun, of course, so I would have done the exact same thing in your position. To be honest, I’m just glad you didn’t hit me over the head with a fire extinguisher,” she finished with a slight grin, lifting up the atmosphere in the room instantly.

Simmons, who was relieved to find her friend in a better mood again, despite her persistent worries about her condition, answered in the same vein, doing her best to keep the conversation light-hearted for the moment.

“Oh, you know how it is, you never have one on hand when you really need it.” The scientist looked at Skye for a brief moment, a fond expression on her face, before she finally moved forward and crossed the distance between them, pulling her friend into a hug for the second time that day. This time it was slightly less overwhelming though, and as the two women stood with their arms around Jemma actually managed to stop herself from crying once again.

“I’m so relieved you’re back, Skye,” she whispered into her friend’s ear, obviously meaning every word of it.

“Me, too,” the hacker agreed quickly, but when Jemma pulled back again after a few moments and got back to the topic at hand, her expression quickly became sober again, as the situation was simply too serious for her to treat it with humour or sarcasm, as she knew Skye tended to do to mask her true feelings.

“Well, I’m sure you’re rather fed up by now at being prodded with needles and examined, but before I can release you, I really have to run a few more tests on you, alright?”, the scientist asked, even though it was rather obvious that Skye didn’t really have a say in the matter.

“Any way I can talk my way out of that?”, the young woman asked sceptically, but obviously without much hope. When Simmons denied her plea just as expected, she didn’t resist the instruction to sit back down on the table, while the biochemist took a blood sample from her, and performed a number of other diagnostics to make sure that Skye hadn’t suffered any lasting physical effects from her abduction.

The young woman complied with the tests without complaining, eventually falling completely silent, which wasn’t lost on Jemma, causing her to mentally add it to the list of uncharacteristic symptoms Skye was showing that indicated a severe psychological trauma in the young woman.

When Simmons was done with her examination, she put all her instruments away again, and just stood in front of Skye for a moment, obviously wanting to say something more, but not knowing how to approach the subject. As she finally spoke, it was more than obvious how uncomfortable she felt about what she was about to say next.

“Skye, I’ve already seen and treated the injuries you suffered while you were kidnapped, most of which seem to be the result of an electroshock device, so I have at least some idea what you went through, but there is something I have to ask you and I need you to answer me truthfully, no matter how painful the memory might be or… or even if you think that you had any reason to feel ashamed, which you wouldn’t have!” The scientist emphasised, but only managed to confuse her patient further.

“Alright,” Skye finally agreed, but it sounded almost like a question, as she wasn’t really sure what to expect next.

“The man who tortured you, Jack,” Simmons continued, willing herself to remain professional despite her own attachment to Skye, “aside from hurting you physically, did he, or anyone else, ever resort to any form of sexual abuse?”, she asked, looking directly at the young woman’s eyes to assess her reaction.

“You mean if I was…”, Skye trailed off, not even able to say the word ‘raped’ out loud, the mere idea just too horrible to face. “No! No, Jack hit me, he used that damn tazer on me until my hands wouldn’t stop shaking from all the electro shocks, and he messed with my head, but he never did _that_. I mean I was tied up and completely at his mercy, but he never even implied anything like that.”

Simmons sighed loudly and the weight that fell off her shoulders was almost palpable, as she relaxed noticeably and a small smile appeared on her lips as she hugged Skye impulsively once again.

“Oh, thank goodness. Now, I know what you’ve been through these past few days must have been horrible, but I also know that you’re much too strong to let that keep you down. We’re all here for you, Skye, so whatever you need, we’re going to help you through this together.” She was holding the hacker at arm’s length now, looking at her almost teary eyed, but Skye didn’t seem to share her optimism quite as much.

“Thanks, Jemma, I really appreciate it that you’re looking out for me. I guess the others still have a lot of work to do, or they would be here, too, right? Finish up the operation, make sure everything is taken care of, that sort of thing,” she said a little too casually, obviously trying to hide the fact that she was clearly hurt by her entire team’s absence, but Simmons didn’t fall for her act for even a second.

She did her best to keep a straight face, but couldn’t really keep herself from smiling nevertheless as she answered Skye.

“Oh, you know how it is, with large operations like this there is always so much to handle, from all the agents that were involved, to the prisoners that were taken and all the intel that was gathered, not even to mention all the paperwork.” Skye’s face fell a little as Jemma seemingly agreed with her, but as the scientist suddenly took her hand and pulled her towards the door to the cargo hold, she went along without hesitation, only realising what was going on, as the other woman continued.

“But Skye, you can’t really believe for even a _second_ that any of that would have kept the others from coming here to see you. They’re not in the lab because I wanted you to be able to rest properly and they were simply completely crowding the room, but now that you’re awake again, I think _somebody_ would like to see you.”

With that she pressed the large button next to her to open the doors, and as soon as they slid open, Skye could see that her earlier disappointment had been completely unfounded. The entire team was sitting or standing in the cargo hold, obviously waiting and now that the door to the lab suddenly opened, they were all looking at her in surprise and relief.

The cargo ramp had been lowered and she could see that they were standing on an airfield, but despite the fact that there were obviously still SHIELD agents moving around outside, telling her that the mission had not been wrapped up completely, none of her team members were showing any interest in what was going on beyond the inside of the Bus, or rather the inside of the lab.

Coulson and May, who had been sitting on the emergency seats at the side of the plane both stood up now and approached the young hacker, the former with a bright smile on his face, while even the latter visibly cheered up at the sight of their youngest team member. Fitz, who had claimed one of the lower steps of the spiral staircase for himself, indignant about being banned from his own lab, was clearly relieved now that Skye’s condition had obviously vastly improved from the last time he had seen her, and Ward, who had been pacing up and down in the back of the cargo hold, unable to contain his impatience any longer, just looked at her from the distance for the moment, content to see his rookie awake, rested andcomposed after her earlier frail state.

“Hey, guys!” Skye greeted them in an attempt to break the almost spellbound atmosphere, slightly embarrassed by the attention she was suddenly receiving, despite knowing that it just showed how much she actually meant to the others. “What up?”, she asked awkwardly, echoing the very first words she had ever said to Coulson and Ward on the day she had met the team.

**To be continued…**


	29. Hey, Rookie!

The atmosphere in the cargo hold had been filled with impatience, restlessness and concern, as the team had been waiting for news on Skye, but when the doors to the lab finally opened and the young woman was standing in front of them, wide awake again, it was quickly replaced by one of immeasurable relief.

Each of them had already seen Skye after her rescue, no matter how briefly, but considering how thoroughly shaken they had all been by the incident outside the factory earlier, it wasn’t much of a surprise that this moment actually felt as if they were seeing each other for the first time since the hacker’s ordeal had ended. More importantly though, as it was in fact the first time they were all together again since before Skye’s abduction, this was finally the reunion the young woman had constantly been hoping for for the last few days.

“Hey, guys! What up?”

When Skye’s almost jarringly light-hearted words broke the silence, it was Agent Coulson, who reacted first and stepped towards her, taking a long,scrutinizing look at her to reassure himself that she was already doing better, now that she was back on the Bus and had already had a chance to get at least some rest. It wasn’t hard to see though just how much her condition had improved ever since their last meeting, and a moment later Coulson pulled the team’s youngest member into a tight embrace once more, glad that the fear and panic he had seen in her before seemed to be gone now.

“Welcome home, Skye,” he muttered into her ear, his concern for the young woman still clearly audible in the tone of his voice, but at this point his relief and confident hope for her recovery obviously outweighed any worries he might still have.

As he finally stepped back to give the others a chance to talk to Skye as well, Agent May spoke up next, her expression showing an uncharacteristic fondness, as she looked at the young woman.

“We’re all glad to have you back, Skye,” she assured her, but neither of them went for a hug this time, as the memory of the agent consoling the hacker after her rescue was still fresh in both of their minds, the earlier unexpected departure from their usually rather distant relationship making their interactions now just a little awkward.

It was perfectly clear however, that the two women were understanding each other even without needing a lot of words, as was made evident by Skye answering the specialist with only a grateful smile and a silent nod, before turning to Fitz, who was approaching her next.

As the scientist was the only member of the team, who hadn’t yet had the chance to talk to Skye before Simmons had sedated her, he was especially excited to see her, giving her a brief, but rather fierce hug.

“I was so worried about you, Skye!”, he told her honestly. “You can’t imagine how relieved I am that you’re back-”

“Trust me, not as relieved as _I_ am,” Skye interrupted him, causing Fitz to splutter for a moment, clearly embarrassed by his poor choice of words.

“Yes, of course, sorry, you’re right. It’s just…”, the engineer fell silent for a moment, as he looked at the young woman in front of him, his nervousness ultimately making way for a heartfelt sincerity that actually surprised her a little. “It’s just that the Bus wasn’t the same without you, Skye.”

The young woman looked at Fitz for several seconds, a multitude of emotions passing over her features, but instead of saying anything in return, she just stepped forward and wrapped her arms around him once more, noticeably longer this time.

“Thank you,” she finally whispered as she pulled away again, but before Fitz could figure out what exactly Skye was thanking him for, her entire focus suddenly shifted away from him, as it was now Agent Ward’s turn to talk to the hacker.

However, for a long moment the two just looked at each other in silence, as neither of them seemed to be able to come up with anything to say, while simultaneously being unable to take their eyes off the person in front of them.

There were so many things that Skye wanted to say right now, starting with an apology, because the last time she had been facing Ward like this, she had been aiming a gun at him, even though in that moment she herself hadn’t even properly understood why she had been acting the way she had and nothing had been further from her mind than actually hurting the specialist.

Somehow though, she just couldn’t find the right words, not to say how sorry she was, nor to tell Ward, and the rest of her team for that matter, how much she had missed them. And while she had obviously thanked them for her rescue already, Skye wasn’t quite sure how to make the others understand just how much them coming for her had meant to her, especially after she had believed Jack that they hadn’t even been looking for her in the first place.

However, even though at first it seemed as if Ward was left just as speechless, he suddenly smiled slightly at her, his eyes telling her that there was a lot more that he wanted to say, too, than what he ultimately did.

“Hey, rookie!”, he greeted her softly, his voice uncharacteristically gentle, unknowingly reminding Skye of all the times he had called her that before, often teasingly, sometimes protectively, but always reassuring her that she was in fact a part of the team and that she had finally found a place where she belonged.

“Hey,” she merely answered him in return, but it was enough to pull her out of her stupor and a moment later her feet suddenly carried her forward and she found herself giving her S.O. a fierce hug, pressing her face against his chest, finally feeling like she was really back home.

Agent Ward returned the embrace quickly, even though he wasn’t exactly comfortable with displaying his emotions like this in front of the whole team. Right now however, the only thing he cared about was to make sure that Skye felt safe and that she would get better after what she had been through, a part of him still worried that she could revert to the frightened and desperate state he had seen her in earlier at any moment.

For now everything appeared to be alright though, and both Skye and Ward were visibly upset as Simmons began ushering everyone outside, arguing that her patient needed some more rest and probably something to eat.

Fitz however immediately jumped at that prompt and offered to prepare one of the meals for Skye his mother had always made for him as a child when he hadn’t been feeling well. The young woman though, either because she genuinely didn’t want him to make such an effort on her account, or simply because she didn’t really like the prospect of Scottish food right now, declined the offer.

“Thanks, Fitz, but for now I think I’d be just fine with a sandwich or something. And I know I’m supposed to take it easy, but to be honest, the first thing I really want to do right now is to take a shower and get a change of clothes, preferably into something that doesn’t look – and smell,” she added grudgingly, wrinkling her nose, “like I picked it out of a garbage bin.”

The engineer nodded understandingly, but to everyone’s surprise, it was Agent May, who was the most helpful.

“Sure, no problem. Just give me a moment and I’ll get you a towel and some fresh clothes. I’ll meet you at the bathroom,” she offered, but didn’t give Skye the opportunity to answer anything, as she turned and left the lab without waiting for a reply.

“Wait, you don’t have to do that, I can get my own things,” the young woman objected half-heartedly, as she called after her, but in the end she decided that she didn’t really mind if the agent was saving her some trouble.

Apparently she wasn’t the only one, who was surprised by May’s behaviour, as Fitz was looking after the specialist’s retreating form and, when he was sure that she was out of earshot, voiced his confusion.

“Okay, did anyone else think that that was really weird?”

“What, you mean Agent May actually being… kind?”, Skye asked in return, her eyebrows raised slightly.

“Yes, exactly,” Fitz agreed, nodding decisively.

“A little maybe,” the hacker admitted, but before she could say anything else, Simmons interrupted her in a reprimanding tone.

“Oh, stop it, you two!”, the scientist ordered, looking at her friends sternly. “Agent May has been worried about Skye just like the rest of us and now she’s trying to be supportive, that’s all. I think it’s very nice that she wants to be helpful, even though she might come off as a little brusque.”

“Or creepy,” Skye supplied, earning herself another glare from Simmons.

“Alright, sorry, that was a joke. It’s just… unusual, that’s all. I don’t think I’ve seen Agent May volunteer to do something for anyone like this like… ever! That just doesn’t seem to be who she is.”

“Or maybe you just haven’t had the opportunity yet to find out how she _really_ is,” Coulson suggested with a pointed look at Skye, before leaving the cargo hold as well, letting her think about his words for a moment.

Ward, who had stayed out of the conversation so far, nodded in agreement, as he looked up the spiral staircase to where May had vanished from view.

“Coulson is right. May might seem cold to you guys, but she’s a specialist, keeping your emotions in check is part of the job. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t care.” His eyes lingered on Skye for another moment after this, but then he finally turned to leave, too, giving her the space Simmons said she needed, pulling Fitz along with him as he left the cargo hold.

As they were alone, the biochemist hurried back into the lab for a few seconds, quickly returning with a waterproof band-aid for the cut in Skye’s hand, before finally releasing the young woman from her care, even though she was obviously still worried about her.

 

* * *

 

As Skye walked towards the bathroom of the Bus, Agent May was already waiting for her in front of the door, holding a stack of towels and clothes, ready to hand them to the young woman.

“I think I got everything you might need, but tell me if something’s missing,” she stated calmly, but Skye shook her head after briefly glancing at the things.

“No, looks good, thanks,” she replied, trying to heed both Coulson’s and Ward’s words, reminding her that this was obviously May’s way of showing kindness towards her, even though Skye found her actions to be somewhat unnecessary and a little intrusive.

She pushed the button to open the bathroom door before turning to the specialist to take her things, but stopped in her movement, as she looked inside the small room, surprised to find an empty wall where the bathroom mirror used to be.

“What happened to the mirror?”, the young woman asked, slightly puzzled.

“It broke,” Agent May merely answered curtly, obviously not willing to elaborate on the subject any further, even though Skye was looking at her suspiciously.

“O-kay,” the hacker answered, drawing the word out, as she wasn’t really sure what to think of May’s usual lack of cooperation.

“Will you be needing any help in there?”, May wondered, nodding her head in the direction of the door, to Skye’s obvious bewilderment.

“No, thanks for getting my stuff, but I think I got it from here,” she replied awkwardly, slightly taken aback by the agent’s offer to help her with her personal hygiene.

“Alright, I will wait here outside then,” May answered simply, startling the young woman yet again and causing her to become increasingly irritated.

“You really don’t have to do that, you know, or don’t you think I’m perfectly capable of taking a shower on my own?”, she asked in return, doing her best not to raise her voice.

“I don’t know, are you?” May’s reply sounded completely innocent, but it caught Skye so utterly off guard that it managed to deplete her anger and render the young woman momentarily speechless, giving the agent the opportunity to continue.

“Going by what happened outside the factory earlier, it is clearly not a stretch to describe your current state as unstable, meaning that you might pose a threat to others or even to yourself. I do not mean to impose on your privacy, Skye, but at least for now I think it would be best to limit the time you’re alone to a minimum.”

A part of her knew that the older agent was right to keep an eye on her, given everything she had been through over the course of the past few days, but now that she was free from her imprisonment again, something in Skye just couldn’t stand the idea of still being watched and controlled, causing her to protest against May’s reasoning.

“Oh, come on, you weren’t even there, alright? It wasn’t really that bad,” she defended herself, but Agent May did not seem particularly impressed by her objection.

“You took Agent Ward’s gun in a panic attack and pointed it at members of your own team, among others, until Agent Coulson finally managed to calm you down enough so Agent Simmons could sedate you. Or is that not accurate?”

A mixture of anger and embarrassment passed over the young woman’s features, as she stared daggers at May, trying to come up with a proper comeback.

“Fine, so maybe I did panic back there, but I’m better now. And seriously, where have you been anyway? What was that super secret mission that Coulson sent you on, huh? Because _I_ was the one, who was kidnapped here, so I think maybe I have a right to know if there’s something you’re hiding from me!” The silence following Skye’s words stretched out uncomfortably long, but May’s expression remained completely unreadable, as she kept looking at the woman in front of her quietly. In the end she pushed the few things in her arms at the hacker, who took them in surprise.

“Get in the shower, Skye.” May’s voice barely conveyed any emotion and it wasn’t a harsh order, but the finality of her words was still undeniable and so Skye merely huffed slightly before turning around and entering the small bathroom of the Bus, making a point of locking the door as loudly as she could before putting the clothes and the towels down next to the shower.

For a brief moment, she was fuming angrily at what she considered to be being treated like a child, but then she decided to not let Agent May ruin what was the first opportunity in days for her to take a shower and feel like a decent human being again.

As the bathroom mirror was gone, Skye opened the wall cupboard, where she stored some of her personal belongings and pulled out a compact powder box that had a small mirror in the lid, so she could at least take a look at herself. She already half expected to look like crap, but was still slightly taken aback by the bruises left on her face and her ashen complexion, giving her an extremely unhealthy look.

Skye’s breath caught in her throat as she studied the crack in her lower lip for a moment, but as her fingers touched it gently, she suddenly had the memory of Jack hitting her flash in front of her eyes vividly, making her flinch heavily and causing her to drop the powder box into the sink, the compact powder breaking apart and spilling all over the ceramic surface.

“Damn it,” the young woman muttered, as she tried to pick up the bigger pieces and put them back into the box, but as her fingers were trembling by now, she just ended up breaking them further apart and making even more of a mess. In the end she sighed in defeat and leaned against the sink for a brief moment, before turning on the faucet and rinsing everything down the drain, the now empty box landing in the trash for all of three seconds, before Skye changed her mind and pulled it back out, storing it away again carefully, but without taking another glance at her reflection.

“What the hell am I even doing here?”, she asked herself quietly, shaking her head in frustration at her own inability to remain calm for more than five minutes. She turned on the shower and began stripping out of her dirty clothes, as she waited for it to heat up, May’s words ringing in her ears again.

_‘Unstable’_. _‘Might pose a threat to others or even to yourself’_.

However, even though Skye knew that she wasn’t exactly in the best state of mind right now, she just couldn’t accept that that was an accurate assessment of her condition at the moment. She was convinced that her freaking out after seeing Jack outside the factory had been a one-off incident, caused by the acute stress of everything that had happened over the previous few hours alone, and while her actions might have seemed irrational, she had never had any intention of hurting one of the SHIELD agents at the scene.

And even if she were to agree on those first two points, she definitely didn’t understand how Agent May could possibly think that she might be a threat to herself, that she would actually harm herself, after everything she had been through.

The past few days had definitely been filled with enough pain to last her a lifetime and if there was one thing she had learned during her ordeal, it was how far she was willing to go to preserve herself, to keep herself alive, even if it meant betraying her friends and working with the enemy.

Skye’s stomach clenched painfully at the thought and the young woman gripped the sink tightly, doing her best to hold herself upright. However, the memories of what she had done, of giving up her team and everything she knew about SHIELD, even hacking into their servers, came pushing back into her mind relentlessly and in the end she fell to her knees in front of the toilet and once again heaved violently, as the meagre contents of her stomach forced their way back up.

The hacker was just glad that she had already turned on the shower, so Agent May was probably not able to hear her throwing up, merely a few moments after confidently claiming that she was doing better.

After she had remained completely still for a few moments, just trying to get her body under control again, Skye finally got back to her feet and quickly stepped into the shower, shivering all over by now. She was still in her underwear, but didn’t even seem to be aware of that at first, as she stood completely motionless, just letting the water run over her body, trying to calm her mind by pushing all thoughts and memories of the past few days as far away from her as possible.

It took her several minutes to get a hold of herself again, but the knowledge that Agent May was waiting for her just outside the door, and would surely have no problem with coming in should she take too long, finally got her to move again.

It still took a while until Skye was completely done and dressed again in the comfortable clothes that May had picked out for her, her hair still slightly damp, as she was too lazy to dry it completely, but when she was ready, she almost felt like a whole new person, relishing the sensation of finally feeling clean again. All the clothes she had been wearing before, the cardigan excluded, had landed in the trash can, where they wouldn’t be able to keep reminding her of what had happened.

As Skye finally stepped out of the bathroom again, Agent May was leaning against the wall outside, and even though her expression was almost emotionless as usual, the young woman thought she could see something like a trace of impatience in her eyes.

“Took you long enough,” the specialist noted, causing the Skye to roll her eyes at her.

“Well, you didn’t mention I had a time limit,” she replied, a teasing grin on her lips, as nothing about her indicated the almost catatonic state she had briefly fallen into back in the shower. And as Skye wasn’t willing to admit that May had been right about her, she didn’t mention any of it, either, heading towards the kitchen area of the Bus as if nothing had happened.

“Alright, I’ll set one next time,” May answered in return, as she was walking next to Skye, and this time the hacker was sure that she had seen a brief smile play on the older woman’s lips, causing her to raise one eyebrow in surprise.

Before she had the chance to reply anything though, she heard voices coming from the kitchen, and remained silent, as the rest of her team came into view, spread out around the dining area that was located between the crew bunks.

Ward and Simmons were in the kitchen, obviously preparing the food for everyone, while Coulson and Fitz were sitting at the table, the latter with a slightly sour look on his face, as his offer to make dinner had not only been shot down, but he had apparently even been banned from helping the others.

There was also someone else, a blond woman Skye didn’t recognise, who was leaning with her arms on the counter, talking to Simmons amicably, causing the hacker to stop in her tracks.

“Guess you two haven’t met yet,” May noted, having interpreted the young woman’s behaviour correctly. She laid a hand on Skye’s back and gave her a slight push, getting her to keep approaching the group, as she called out to the blond agent, who hadn’t noticed them so far.

“Agent Haze!” The woman in question looked up at the sound of her name, and immediately stood up straight again, as she realised that she was looking at the person, who was the reason for her being on this plane in the first place.

“Skye, that’s Agent Rebecca Haze, she helped us out while we were trying to find you. She’s an expert in computer science and Agent Coulson brought her on the team as reinforcement while you were missing,” May explained briefly.

Skye looked at the taller woman with a slightly sceptical expression and for a brief instant there was even something like anger flashing up inside of her at the notion of having been replaced on the team, but she quickly realised that that wasn’t the case. If anything, Agent Haze’s presence actually indicated the opposite, as Skye’s proficiency with computer systems had obviously made her absence so noticeable that Coulson had felt the need to bring in a substitute in the first place.

If Agent Haze had noticed Skye’s reservations against her however, she didn’t show, as she offered her hand to the young woman, greeting her warmly.

“Hello, Skye. I’d say it’s about time that we finally meet face to face. Well, I know these aren’t exactly normal circumstances to meet under, and of course you have no idea who I am, but as Agent May said, I’ve been helping your team with your case, and I’m glad that we now get the chance to meet in person after all.”

The agent had decided to leave out the part where she had been monitoring Skye through her tracking bracelet for the past few months, as she figured that it would make for a very pour conversation starter under the circumstances. She definitely planned on telling the young woman the truth before she left the team again, but for now she was looking forward to meeting her without bringing this bit of information up and straining their relationship from the get-go.

Skye shook Haze’s hand, but her brow became furrowed, as she stared at the agent, trying to figure out why she seemed so oddly familiar.

“Sorry, you said we haven’t met yet, but I have this feeling that I recognise you from somewhere,” she stated, feeling vaguely like she had seen the agent before.

“Well, we did kind of meet, but only very briefly, so I’m not exactly sure if I would even call it that. I was with the medics, who brought Jack out of the factory and to the helicopter earlier,” Agent Haze explained, deliberately using Curtis Tyler’s fake name, knowing that Skye would be more familiar with it.

It took a second for Skye to recall the situation, but then she remembered seeing the blond woman standing next to Jack’s gurney. Of course that also meant that she had witnessed her panicked outburst, as she now realised, her expression betraying her embarrassment.

“Oh,” she simply replied, completely mortified. “So you were there, when…”, Skye trailed off again, but before the silence could stretch out any longer, Haze quickly replied, not wanting the young woman to feel uncomfortable on her account.

“You tried to take out the man, who held you prisoner for days and who tortured you, believe me, I would have done the same thing in your situation.”

“Really?”, Skye asked in return, actually surprised at the honesty in her voice.

“Well, I guess in the end I would have been glad if someone had stopped me, too, but I think I would have at least tried to shoot him, yes.” Agent Haze was being completely sincere as she answered Skye, having seen enough of Tyler’s victims to know that a bullet to the head would have still been a much better ending than he deserved.

“Alright, both of you, enough with the negative talk for now!”, Agent Simmons suddenly interrupted the two computer experts. “We’re all happy and relieved to have Skye back, so how about some nice, _positive_ conversation while we have dinner together?”, the scientist asked, pushing plates with an admittedly delicious looking sandwich into the hands of each of them.

Skye took a glance at the food in front of her and then looked over at the rest of her team, all of them obviously eager for her to join them, suddenly feeling like she had a lump in her throat.

Only yesterday she had thought that she would probably never see them again, that she might die in that cold and dark cell all by herself, so being back with her team, her family now meant more to her than she could ever express with words.

Startling Simmons, who was still standing next to Skye, the hacker suddenly wrapped her free arm around her, pulling her into a brief hug, and uttering a small “Thank you”, before she finally took a seat at the table next to Coulson, who greeted her with a warm smile and a small nod.

“Oh, well, it’s alright, they’re just a few sandwiches, really,” Simmons answered with a puzzled expression, not really sure what Skye had been thanking her for.

As Agent Ward moved past her to hand the rest of the team their plates, he added,

“Yes, and it was a joined effort, actually. So sit down, Simmons, and dig in, everyone! I don’t want to see any leftovers, alright?”

As everyone had food standing in front of them, Ward took a seat as well, sitting down right across from Skye, a smile forming on his lips, as he saw her taking a huge bite out of the sandwich in her hands. She caught him looking at her and gave him a lopsided grin in return, but didn’t say anything, completely content with listening to the conversations around her and savouring every last bite of her food. She was feeling as relaxed as she hadn’t done in a very long time, surrounded by the people she cared for and who cared for her in return.

**To be continued…**


	30. A Certain Amount Of Crazy

Agent Haze was looking at the multiple screens in front of her, a cold shiver running down her spine, as she kept watching the different scenes from Talos’ hideout that were playing out in an infinite loop. All the videos were put on mute, but the images were more than vivid enough on their own, even without any sound.

Several of the displays were showing Curtis Tyler torturing Skye, the electroshock device in his hands lighting up again and again, as he attacked the defenceless woman, causing her to writhe and cry out in agony, all the while trying her best to remain defiant.

Another screen was showing the young hacker running down a corridor, only for Tyler to catch her and drag her away again, as she was literally kicking and screaming at him, but was still easily overpowered.

Agent Haze glanced over at Agent Coulson and Agent May, who were both with her in the former’s office to take a look at the videos she had recovered from Talos’ computer system. Considering that for the two of them it was a member of their own team they were seeing suffering, she couldn't even imagine how hard it had to be for them to watch these images now.

The computer expert had already been analysing the surveillance tapes from the compound for several hours, using Agent Coulson's office like he had told her to, but while she knew of course that Skye was safe and sound and back with her team by now, that knowledge hadn't really made watching her ordeal much easier.

Even before they had actually met each other, the agent had had a lot of respect for Skye’s abilities, but after seeing her team’s affections for her, and especially after finally having come face to face with her by now, she had quickly developed a certain fondness for the young woman, which had made what Tyler had put her through seem even more atrocious.

Just going by their expressions at the moment, it was rather hard to tell what Coulson and May were thinking about the scenes playing out in front of them, as they were both surprisingly collected, but Haze could still see how much all of this was getting to them.

After another brief moment, the computer expert finally pulled her eyes away from the other two agents again and focused back on the screen in front of her, especially on the last two displays, which were showing something entirely different, as it wasn’t Skye, who was being attacked in them.

The first image was showing Tyler and Trevor Green arguing in a corridor, and even though only the videos from Skye’s cell had audio to begin with, Haze had been able to reconstruct their conversation with SHIELD’s lip reading program, finally giving them an answer to the question why the leader of Talos had been killed only minutes before the team had stormed the complex that had served as their hideout.

Apparently Green had wanted to kill Skye in an effort to hurt her team and get revenge on SHIELD for disrupting his operation, but Curtis Tyler of all people had argued against it, emphasising that he had given the young woman his word that she would survive if she cooperated with him, which she had obviously done. After everything Haze had learned about the mercenary in the past, she was still having trouble believing it, but clearly this promise to Skye had served as a binding oath to Tyler, as the following surveillance tape from her cell had proven quite impressively.

It showed the mercenary slitting his boss’s throat, and while Haze had initially written the conflict between the two off as some sort of power struggle, now that she knew the truth, she wasn’t exactly sure how to feel about it any longer. Tyler had been actively protecting Skye, even going so far as to murder the man who had hired him, and all of that, because he had given her his word.

Seeing how much suffering he had caused the young woman without so much as batting an eye, it was hard to understand why something like that would even matter to him, but apparently even a cold-blooded torturer like Tyler had some kind of moral code, no matter how twisted it might be.

“Are you going to tell Skye? Or Ward for that matter?”, Agent May suddenly asked, glancing over at Coulson, who appeared to be deep in thought, his eyes not leaving the last of the displays in front of him.

“No, at least not for the moment. Skye is going to have a hard enough time as it is, getting over that,” he explained, indicating the videos playing in front of them, “without needing to wrap her head around the idea that the man who tortured her also saved her life. And Ward, well, I’ll wait and see if Tyler pulls through before I decide anything, but no matter what the circumstances were, he still assaulted an unarmed man, and would have even killed him on the spot if Simmons hadn’t managed to resuscitate him. I understand why he did it, but if Tyler dies, I don’t know if I can overlook that, especially in the light of him saving Skye’s life.”

“A life that he put in danger in the first place,” May objected, even though she knew that Coulson was well aware of that, too. “And look at what he did to her. Don’t tell me you’re going to let Ward go in front of a review board for whatever happens to that monster.”

“As I said, I haven’t decided anything yet,” her C.O. reminded her, causing the pilot to sigh in frustration and get up from her seat, heading for the door.

“Well, once you get around to it, you know my opinion,” she simply announced, before leaving the office, glad to get away from the images on the screens, even though she knew that she probably wasn’t going to get them out of her mind anytime soon.

While she was still deep in thought, Agent May made her way towards the cockpit, about to make one of her regular reports, knowing that while there had been no development on Coulson’s case since her last one, Director Fury still liked to be kept up-to-date on anything that was going on on the Bus.

After Agent May had left, Agent Coulson found himself staring at the screens for another few moments, until he finally picked up the remote and turned them all off, leaving the atmosphere in the room almost peaceful, had it not been for the large number of disturbing news that the analysis of Talos’ database had revealed so far and that were still spinning around in his head.

Aside from the videos documenting Skye’s torture, the most interesting and also most disturbing intel had come from the video call of the woman in the colourful dress, Raina, as they had found out by now. The fact that she had referred to SHIELD as her and Talos’ ‘mutual enemies’ had seemed to confirm their theory of a connection between the group and Centipede, and one call to SHIELD’s training centre later, Mike Peterson had been able to reveal the woman’s identity as the one, who had recruited him for the project in the first place.

However, even though the possible implications of Centipede’s involvement in Skye’s abduction were anything but reassuring, it was the ominous mention of the ‘Clairvoyant’ that really worried Coulson.

While Raina had seemed to genuinely believe in the psychic abilities of this person, or was at least a very convincing actress, Coulson thought that Haze’s theory of a mole inside SHIELD was a lot more likely, although possibly even more frightening.

Going by how far he had reached out within the agency to get the support he had needed for Skye’s rescue, there was no way of telling how many people had known about the operation and could have betrayed it. If anything, he figured they could actually consider themselves lucky that it hadn’t ended in a complete disaster.

He tried to focus again, even though that wasn’t exactly an easy task, and looked directly at Agent Haze, who seemed to have already guessed what the agent was thinking about.

“It’s all connected, isn’t it? Talos, the Clairvoyant, Centipede. What are you going to do with that information?”, the computer expert asked, looking at Coulson thoughtfully.

“Keep it in house. For now at least. I’m not sure what idea I like less, a traitor working for Centipede within SHIELD, or someone with actual psychic powers using them against us, but until we know for sure how this Clairvoyant got his intel about our rescue mission for Skye, I’m not going to take any chances. So when you return to the Hub, I expect this to remain confidential and out of the records.”

“Of course, don’t worry, I won’t mention this to anyone,” Haze quickly agreed, understanding that a situation like this called for extreme discretion. “I guess that now that Skye is back with your team, there’s not much left for me to do here. I want to go to the hospital to see how Tyler is doing, and when I get back, I’ll help Agent Fitz with restoring the damaged hard drives and take another thorough look at Talos’ database, but that should be done by tomorrow,” she noted, a part of her actually sad that she had to leave Coulson’s team again, but of course glad that they had managed to find Skye alive and still in one piece.

“I know that you came here on pretty short notice, but you’ve really been a great help during this operation, so thank you for that,” Agent Coulson replied honestly, knowing that the team would have had a much harder time, if they had been forced to search for their rookie on their own. “Without your assistance, it would have taken us a lot longer to find Skye, days, maybe even weeks, while Tyler would have continued to torment her and you saved her from that. So if you ever need anything in the future, any favour, give me a call and I’ll get it done.”

“Thank you, sir, I’ll keep that in mind,” Haze replied appreciatively, getting up from her seat in the process. Coulson followed her lead and extended his hand to the computer expert, which she took instantly with a smile.

“Are you going to head to the hospital now?”, he asked, wondering about her further plans.

“Yes, I need to know what Tyler’s condition is. I’ve been after him for years now, so if he lives, I want to be the one who brings him to the Fridge, and if he doesn’t, I want to make sure myself that he’s really dead. His sister is still at the hospital, isn’t she?”, Haze asked, pausing briefly, before continuing in a surprisingly concerned tone. “I’ll talk to her and make sure she’s alright.”

She fell silent for a brief moment, apparently not really sure if she should even get further involved in the forger’s fate, but ultimately decided to just go ahead and tell Coulson what she had been thinking.

“I don’t know if you’ve decided what you want to do with Olivia yet, but as her information has really been extremely helpful, I would suggest that we let her go once her brother’s condition is stable, or if he should die. She’s no threat to SHIELD and while she might be a criminal, I think she earned herself a ‘get out of jail free card’, just this once.”

“Are you sure about that?”, Coulson asked, surprised by Haze’s leniency, after the red headed young woman had done everything in her power to make her interrogation as difficult as possible. The agent simply nodded in reply though, a soft smile on her lips.

“Yes, I might not like her, but she’s going to lose her brother, one way or the other, and I guess I can emphasise with that,” she answered honestly, a faint hint of sadness in her voice. She was sure that Coulson had read her file before requesting her as backup for his team and knew that she was speaking from personal experience, but to her relief, he didn’t push the subject any further.

The agent just nodded in agreement, his expression understanding.

“Alright, I’ll make arrangements for her release. But when you get to the hospital, be sure to give me an update on Tyler.”

“Of course,” Agent Haze agreed, before finally leaving the office and heading towards the cargo hold of the Bus to exit the plane.

 

* * *

It had been several hours since Skye had returned to her bunk after eating dinner with the team, but even though she had told them that she was going to get some more sleep, she was still lying on her bed wide awake, her eyes staring up at the plain walls around her, but without really seeing anything.

It was dark outside by now, the plane still firmly on the ground, and Skye had already heard some of the others head into their bunks for the night, as well, but she had turned on the lights in her small room the moment the sun had started to set, the almost irrational fear of the dark Jack had instilled in her taking a hold of her once more.

She was still wearing her clothes from earlier, a pair of jogging pants, a comfortable shirt and a dark pink cardigan, but even though she also had her blanket wrapped around her tightly, she was still feeling incredibly cold, which was what finally got her to get up again, figuring that if she wasn’t going to fall asleep any time soon anyway, she might as well get herself something hot to drink to warm up again.

Just as she was about to leave her bunk, Skye stopped briefly as she sneezed forcefully, causing her to pull her jacket more tightly around her body, as she opened the door and stepped outside into the dimly lit common area of the Bus.

The young woman briefly considered turning on more of the lights, but as it was bright enough for her to see everything, and she didn’t want to wake up any of the others, she left things as they were, as she headed over to the kitchen and started warming up a cup of milk in the microwave. She also added a teaspoon of honey to it, just like Mrs. Brody, one of her foster mothers, had done, when she hadn’t been able to sleep during her brief stay with her and her family as a child.

Stirring the warm beverage absentmindedly, Skye walked towards the lounge area, unwilling to head back to the confinement of her bunk just yet, but when she went past the command centre, and the comfortable white leather chairs came into view, she suddenly realised that she obviously wasn’t the only one, who hadn’t been able to find any sleep so far.

“Oh, hey, Ward,” she greeted the specialist in surprise, but quickly noticed that he seemed to be just as startled by her appearance as she was by him sitting here all by himself in the dimly lit area. He was leaning back on the couch, nursing a half full drink in his hand, but sat up straighter, as he became aware of her.

“Skye!” He had apparently been deep in thought and needed a moment to get his bearings again, but then he put the glass down on the table and looked up at her sympathetically.

“Hey, I thought you were sleeping.”

“Well, I tried,” she admitted, stepping a little closer, “but after I’ve been practically sleeping all day, I guess I wasn’t really that tired after all. I made myself some warm milk with honey, maybe that will help. I’d offer you some, too, but I can see that you already got your own drink,” she said, indicating the glass of alcohol in front of Ward.

The specialist smiled briefly and shrugged, before leaning back again, ignoring his drink completely.

“It was a very long day, you know, in fact, a couple of them, but to be honest, that’s still the first. Guess I wasn’t really in the mood after all.” He watched the hacker for a few seconds, as she was still standing in the middle of the room, stirring the drink in her hand repeatedly and looking incredibly lost to him, causing Ward’s features to soften slightly.

“Why don’t you sit down, Skye?”, he asked gently, causing the young woman to look at him with a mixture of surprise and hesitation.

“You sure you don’t mind the company? I mean, it looked like you kind of wanted to be alone just a few seconds ago,” she pointed out, but the agent shook his head immediately.

“No, of course I don’t mind. It’s been a hell of a day for all of us, maybe some company will do both of us good.”

“Thanks.” Skye finally nodded and sat down in one of the leather chairs, pulling her legs up so she was sitting cross-legged, like she usually did when she wanted to get comfortable. She was holding her mug tightly with both hands now, enjoying the warmth seeping into her fingers and the sweet scent drifting up into her nose, both already having a relaxing effect on her.

She could feel Ward’s eyes on her, scrutinising her, but even though the hacker generally did feel comfortable in his presence, she was suddenly afraid that he could see right through her calm demeanour and realise how vulnerable and messed-up she still felt inside, so she kept looking down at her drink, avoiding eye contact.

They sat in complete silence for a while, the only sound being the soft clinking of the spoon in Skye’s hand against the side of the mug, but then Ward leaned forward once more, sitting almost on the edge of the couch, so he was closer to the young woman as he addressed her again.

“You know, we didn’t really get a chance to talk yet, you and I, after everything that happened. At least not without the others around,” he observed, prompting a surprised frown to form on Skye’s forehead, as she glanced up at him.

“Yeah, I know, I just didn’t think that that would bother you. I mean, I’d have figured that for you, the less talking, the better.”

Ward knew that she was right, of course, that from the two of them it was usually Skye, who wanted to talk thinks over, much to his annoyance, but as the young woman was a lot less forthcoming with her feelings than usual at the moment, it was left to him to get her to open up for once.

Of course he wasn’t going to admit any of this to her. Instead, he chose to hide his true intentions behind his responsibilities as her supervising officer.

“Well, as your S.O., it’s my job to make sure you get a proper mission debriefing after being out in the field or going through a potentially traumatising situation like this. Consider it part of your training.”

“Yeah, right,” Skye answered with a faint smile, knowing that Ward was trying to approach the conversation from a professional level, even though his personal concern for her was more than evident. As he obviously realised that now, too, though, the specialist sighed and continued in a gentler tone of voice, his eyes searching Skye’s.

“Alright, I guess that wasn’t really very convincing, was it?”

“Nope,” the young hacker agreed, shaking her head briefly.

“Okay, the truth is that I’m worried about you, Skye. I know that these last few days must have been hell for you, and you’ve never been taught how to handle an experience like this. Imprisonment, torture, that is tough on everyone, even seasoned agents, but you had to go through all of this with no training, no coping mechanisms. All things considered, you seem to be holding up a lot better than I initially expected, and I know that you’re good at not letting things get to you, Skye, but nobody would blame you if this did. So tell me, how are you doing?”

Her lips already moving to answer, Ward fixated his rookie with a stern glare, anticipating that she was going to say something evasive, as she tended to do in serious situations.

“ _Really._ ”

Her mouth closed again for a moment, proving that the specialist had been right with his inkling, before Skye finally answered, honestly this time.

“I don’t know. Better, I guess. I mean, I definitely still feel like I’ve been put through a wringer, I’m a little cold, and some of the bruises still hurt, but it’s not that bad, really.” She knew that Ward hadn’t mainly been talking about her physical condition, but those injuries were a lot easier for her to admit than anything that was affecting her mind, as she was still trying her best to remain calm and prevent any further sudden mood changes like she had had right after her rescue or earlier in the bathroom.

In the end however, she knew that she had to tell Ward something and the fact that he was so obviously concerned about her, made her tell him the truth, even though just talking about her kidnapping seemed to get harder the more time had passed since then.

“When I was Jack’s prisoner, it was like I was having this nightmare, you know, and I couldn’t wake up.” Skye’s gaze had become distant, as if she was seeing something Ward couldn’t and the agent could only guess that the memories of her abduction were still keeping their hold on the young woman.

She remained quiet for a moment, but as Ward was already about to say something to comfort her, Skye took a deep breath to steady herself and continued in a small voice.

“Now it’s over and I know I got out, but it’s like a part of me thinks that I’m still trapped. I close my eyes and… and I’m back there, I’m…”, but now she trailed off completely, unable to talk about what had happened to her, unwilling to focus on the memories. Instead she concentrated on her current situation again, as that was what her S.O. had asked her about in the first place.

“You know, I can’t even sleep with the lights off anymore. It’s like I’m five again or something.” She let out a humourless laugh at that and shook her head, reprimanding herself for what she was obviously perceiving as weakness. Ward was having none of this however and moved over to sit on the table right in front of the hacker, so he was facing her directly.

“Skye, listen to me, okay? It’s not even been twenty-four hours since we rescued you, so you have absolutely no reason to be hard on yourself, alright? No one is expecting you to just bounce back as if nothing happened. It will get better, I promise, but it might take a while and until then you just do whatever is necessary to get you through this, understood? And yes, that’s an order,” he finished with a slight grin, trying his best to cheer Skye up again, even if only a little.

Apparently it worked though, as a small smile appeared on the young woman’s lips, when she nodded briefly.

“Okay.” After this she fell silent again for a long moment, but this time it was a much more comfortable silence, allowing both of them to collect their thoughts again.

As Skye spoke once more, her expression was completely sincere, and the specialist could tell that her words were absolutely heartfelt.

“Listen, Ward, now that we’re having this little heart to heart, there’s something I wanted to tell you,” she began, making the agent wonder what exactly she was talking about.

“Because I need you to know that I am so, _so_ sorry for what happened outside the factory today, that I took your gun and… and almost went postal with it. I mean, I didn’t want to hurt you, or any of the others, of course, but just the fact that I actually aimed a loaded gun at you, looking at how crazy I was in that moment, who knows what could have happened. I just hope you’re not angry anymore, and-”, but at this point Ward finally interrupted her, looking at Skye almost incredulously.

“What? No, Skye, of course I’m not angry. You were freaked out after seeing Tyler, which is understandable, and you know, just between you and me, after what you went through, I actually think you’re entitled to a certain amount of crazy for a while.” Skye’s face lit up noticeably again after Ward’s reassurance and an almost mischievous grin played on her lips as she answered him.

“Alright, but don’t complain later if I take you up on that.”

“I won’t, I promise,” the agent agreed, relieved that his rookie still seemed to be able to open up to him, and hoping that he was actually able to alleviate her worries and help her to recover from her traumatic ordeal.

As the young woman continued after a few moments however, his own heart began to clench uncomfortably, as her words brought a lingering guilt back to the surface that he had been quite successfully pushing away for a while now, focusing only on Skye and her rescue and recovery.

“Ward, I know I already thanked you and the others for saving me, for putting together that kick-ass rescue operation, but you know, I don’t think I’ve told you why I was so surprised to see you there in the first place. I mean, I should have known that you would come for me, that you would find me eventually, but the truth is that I thought you weren’t even looking for me,” she admitted, a deeply regretful look on her face.

“I was so grateful that you and the others got me out of there – still am of course – because Jack, he... he told me that he had made it look like I had betrayed you guys again, like I had just abandoned you on that mission. And I actually believed him that you had given up on me and I thought that I was left all on my own.” Tears had rushed back into Skye’s eyes at this confession and she paused for a moment to wipe them away.

“Skye, I...,” Ward began, but broke off again immediately, his breath catching in his throat. He didn’t know what to say to this, how to tell the traumatised young woman that he had fallen for her kidnapper’s ruse, that he had believed the lie so easily and that all it had taken to break his trust in her had been two words typed on a laptop screen. Through his hesitation his opportunity to explain himself passed however, as Skye continued, each of her words cutting into Ward like a knife.

“But of course I know now that I should have had more faith in you, because you came anyway. You got me out of there and I will _never_ forget that.” She untangled her legs at this point and leaned forward, so she could wrap her arms around Ward, resting her head against his chest and seeking comfort in the warmth of his body. The agent returned the embrace, glad that the hacker couldn’t see the pained expression on his face. He took a shaky breath, inhaling Skye’s scent, and tried to let the relief over her finally being safe soothe his guilty conscience.

They sat like this for a while, Ward remaining completely silent, not trusting himself to say anything right now without upsetting Skye. He knew he had to tell her the truth eventually, but right now all he wanted was for her to feel as safe and secure as possible and apparently that included letting her belief that he had never doubted her.

**To be continued…**

p


	31. Hero Or Black Sheep

When Agent Haze arrived at the hospital, there were two armed SHIELD agents positioned outside Curtis Tyler’s room and another inside, obviously there to keep an eye on his sister Olivia, who was sitting at his bedside, waiting for any sign of his condition improving.

As the agent stood outside, watching the scene through the room’s window, one of the doctors suddenly approached her, his expression grim, although Haze had the impression that that was more a general character trait than a sign of bad news.

“I’m Dr. Martin. You are with SHIELD, I assume?”, the man asked brusquely, causing the agent to nod in reply.

“Yes, I’m Agent Haze, I’m with the team that brought him in,” she answered, briefly showing her badge to the physician. “How is he doing?”, she asked, glancing in the direction of the unconscious mercenary behind the glass window.

Tyler had been hooked up to a whole bunch of machines and monitors and there was an IV drip running into his arm, but he wasn’t intubated any longer, obviously breathing on his own again. Large parts of his face had been covered in bandages, but the areas that were visible looked bruised and raw, reminding Haze of the severity of his beating.

“Well,” Dr. Martin began, eying Haze sceptically, “considering the physical trauma he went through, surprisingly good, actually. Given the security measures you’ve taken, I’m going to assume he deserved what was done to him, so I’m not sure if this will be good or bad news to you, but if his condition keeps improving like this, he’s going to make it. He’s not out of the woods yet, but he’s already breathing on his own again, which is good, and his results are promising.”

Haze nodded, as she acknowledged his words.

“And his injuries?”, she asked, the sound of Agent Ward’s fist coming down on Tyler’s face still echoing in her mind.

“Well, he was really lucky with the gunshot wound to the shoulder, as the bullet missed both his bones and any important nerve strings, but regarding the facial trauma, it would probably be easier to tell you the parts of his skull that haven’t been broken.

There are multiple fractures to his cheekbones, nose and jaw, among others, but aside from the bone damage, he has also suffered a massive concussion, accompanied by a slight swelling of the brain. Luckily that has mostly receded by now, but at this point there is no way of telling if there is going to be any lasting brain damage. That we’ll only know when he wakes up. Well, _if_ he wakes up, of course,” Dr. Martin added, still with the same grim look on his face. As he continued however, at least the tone of his voice had softened slightly.

“To be honest, I had almost written him off at first, but he kept holding on, and I guess the moral support isn’t hurting, either,” he admitted, indicating Olivia. “Hasn’t left his side since I allowed her to go in.”

Haze followed his line of sight, taking a deep breath, as she knew that it was time that she talked to the young woman, even though she was sure that this conversation would be less than pleasant, given Tyler’s current condition.

“Alright, thank you, Doctor. I’ll keep Ms. Campbell some company for now, but if her brother’s condition changes, I want you to tell me first.”

“Sure, why not. Just do me a favour, will you? Make sure that there won’t be any more agents in suits crowding my hallways. They’re making both the patients and the personnel nervous and they’re hardly necessary anyway. Even if your guy were to wake up right now, he wouldn’t even be able to get out of the bed, let alone make any escape attempts.”

“I know,” Haze agreed as she turned towards the door and reached for the handle, “but trust me, with him, we’re better off safe than sorry.”

As she entered the sterile room, the blond woman was suddenly seized by a cold feeling of dread, stemming from a deep seated aversion to hospitals she had had for over a decade now. She didn’t like being here, as it brought back too many painful memories, but as she was here on a job, she ultimately pushed the feeling away, forcing herself to focus.

Olivia was sitting in a chair next to her brother’s bed, while the SHIELD agent Coulson had sent with her was standing next to the door, not letting her out of his sight.

“It’s okay, I got it from here,” Haze told him, dismissing the man, who simply nodded and left the room without saying a single word. As he had closed the door behind him, it was completely silent in the room for a moment, until Olivia finally spoke, not taking her eyes off her brother’s unconscious form.

“I didn’t think you’d actually show yourself here,” she said harshly, but with a lot less anger than Haze had expected.

She knew that she shouldn’t be taking the issue this personally. She had made Olivia a promise, simply because she didn’t have any other choice and if Tyler had just surrendered instead of provoking Agent Ward into attacking him, he wouldn’t even have been injured in the first place. However, seeing the pain in Olivia’s eyes now struck too close to home and it didn’t matter that the woman was a criminal and her brother, whom she had been aiding for years, a merciless torturer. For Agent Haze she was just a sister, incredibly afraid of losing her brother, reminding her all too painfully of her own loss years ago.

“For what it’s worth,” she started, regret clearly audible in her voice, “I really am sorry for what happened. This is not how I had intended to take him in. But the doctor said his chances are looking good.”

“Great, then as soon as he wakes up, you can go ahead and lock him away for the rest of his life. I never should have helped you,” Olivia answered bitterly, angry at herself for ever cooperating with SHIELD.

Pulling a second chair to the side of the bed, Agent Haze sat down next to the forger and looked at her sympathetically.

“I know that that probably won’t be much of a consolation right now, but thanks to you we were able to rescue the woman your brother had kidnapped. Talos is destroyed for good and Trevor Green is dead.”

“Seriously?”, the forger asked, her mood lifting a little, obviously both surprised and delighted by the news. “You really took that psychopath out? Good!”

“Actually, it was your brother, who killed him,” Haze replied, earning herself a stunned look.

“Why? I mean, I told him that it was a mistake working for that guy, but why would Curtis kill his own boss?” Olivia asked, completely puzzled.

“To save our consultant. Apparently he had promised her that she would survive, but ‘the Colonel’ wanted to kill her when we attacked their base to rescue her.”

Olivia actually laughed briefly at this and shook her head in disbelief, as she looked at her brother.

“I shouldn’t even be surprised, you know? Even though he always looked out for me my entire life, I know that he can be cold-hearted, even cruel, to others, but if he gives you his word, he’d never break it, no matter what. Some stupid pride thing, I guess,” she finished, shrugging.

Agent Haze wasn’t sure if it was her worry about her brother’s condition, or if the red headed woman had realised that she really was sorry for how things had gone down, but for some reason there was almost no trace of her earlier antagonism left, as Olivia fell silent again and the two women just sat side by side for a while almost amicably.

“Do you have any siblings?”, Olivia finally asked after some time, breaking the quiet. Agent Haze hesitated for a long moment before answering, knowing full well that she had no reason to share any private information with the red headed woman, and that it would violate pretty much every aspect of her training regarding interactions with anyone outside of SHIELD. In the end however, she answered truthfully anyway, convinced that showing some empathy right now was worth revealing at least some personal details.

“Yes, two older sisters.”

“And, are they super secret agents, too?”, Olivia asked, a hint of her earlier derisiveness sneaking back into her voice.

“No,” Haze replied, smiling slightly at the idea, “they’ve got husbands, kids, a house in the suburbs, the whole package.” Noticing the scrutinising look Tyler’s sister was giving her, the agent raised an eyebrow in suspicion.

“What?”, she asked, feeling somewhat defensive after telling the forger about her family.

“Nothing, I’m just trying to figure out if that makes you the hero or the black sheep of your family.”

“Neither,” the agent simply replied, as she was definitely not going to tell the other woman that neither her sisters nor her parents had any idea that she was working for SHIELD in the first place, let alone that her job had put her in life-threatening situations several times already.

However, Olivia didn’t answer to that anything, and they both remained quiet for a while again, until the forger broke the silence once more, her voice almost indifferent, even though Agent Haze was sure that she could hear a trace of worry in it.

“Now that you’ve saved your agent - or consultant, whatever - what are you going to do to me? I know I’m not exactly a ‘law-abiding citizen’, so what, am I going to end up in some SHIELD prison, too?”

“No, I don’t think so,” Haze replied, shaking her head slightly. “Agent Coulson has agreed to let you go and while there are probably going to be some more questions first, and it might be a good idea for you to set up shop somewhere else, I guess that you will be able to leave soon. Just don’t give him a reason to change his mind,” she finished, as she slowly stood up from her chair and headed towards the door.

“I’ll get myself a cup of coffee; I guess you’ll be fine on your own for a while, right? Do you want anything?”

Olivia looked up at her in surprise, caught off guard by the agent’s willingness to give her some privacy.

“Coffee would be great, just black, please.”

“Sure, but I might be a while,” Haze noted, as she reached for the door handle.

“Okay,” Olivia replied, nodding, but as she was already looking at her brother again, she glanced back up at the agent once more.

“Thanks,” she muttered, clearly not liking that she had to show gratitude to a SHIELD agent, but feeling obliged to thank her nevertheless.

Haze just nodded in reply before leaving the room and closing the door behind her silently.

As she came out into the corridor, she found that she finally had to agree with Dr. Martin, as there were three SHIELD agents guarding the door by now, and given Tyler’s condition and the fact that Olivia was soon going to be released anyway, that were two more than necessary.

“Alright,” she started, looking at the men in the dark suits, “you really don’t all have to stand here. I want one of you to stay at the door, keep an eye on Miss Campbell and her brother, but it will suffice if you do that from out here. The other two… well,… take a break, get yourself a cup of coffee or something. You’re making the people here nervous,” she finished with a faint smile, echoing Dr. Martin’s words from earlier. Then she headed towards the next exit so she could use her cell phone, intend on giving Agent Coulson an update on Tyler’s condition, as she had promised.

 

* * *

 

A few hours had passed since Skye had joined Ward in the lounge area of the Bus, but after they had spent a considerable amount of time just talking to each other, about anything else than her kidnapping really, the young woman had fallen asleep on the couch, obviously a lot more at ease in the spacious area and her S.O.’s presence than she was alone in her own confined bunk.

After covering the hacker with a warm blanket, Ward had moved over to one of the leather armchairs to give her more room and now found himself watching her sleeping form, deep in thought.

He knew he should feel relieved right now to have Skye back and be glad that, even though the young woman obviously still needed time to fully recover from her experience, she at least seemed to be able to take some comfort in his presence. The truth was however, that all of the anger and self-hatred that had built up inside of him from the moment he had learned the truth about her kidnapping had come back to the surface the instant she had apologised for doubting him.

Ward could hardly believe how messed up this entire situation was and was now even more furious at himself for not telling Skye the truth immediately.

He hadn’t wanted to leave her in the dark about what had happened after her disappearance, but he had just been completely unprepared for the hacker being the one to apologise for falling for Tyler’s lies.

Ward’s jaw clenched unnoticeably, as he remembered how the mercenary had taunted him during their confrontation in the factory with how he had let Skye believe that her team had essentially abandoned her. It did make sense that he had told her about his trick to keep them from searching for her once she had gone missing, of course, as it had been an easy and obviously effective way of destroying the young woman’s resistance under the torture, but the fact that he had actually been telling the truth, at least as far as Ward had been concerned, made it all the more horrible.

He knew that Coulson wanted to talk to Skye in his office in the morning, to go over what had happened, but even though Ward still didn’t know how to confess to his rookie that he had believed her to be a traitor, while in truth she had been abducted and tortured, the one thing he did know was that he had to be the one to tell her.

He was sure that Skye trusted him completely, especially after he had rescued her from her prison, and that this reveal could possibly damage their relationship irreparably, but he was convinced that if he ever wanted her to forgive him for this, he at least needed to be honest with her now.

Leaning back in the armchair, the agent sighed heavily, a small part of him actually wishing that he would still be working as a specialist, _alone_ , without team mates to consider and worry about or any conflicting loyalties that he hadn’t even asked for.

He had been fine working by himself, without running the risk of getting attached to any other members of SHIELD, but ever since he had joined Coulson’s team, he had found that his world had become a lot less simple.

He wasn’t a one-man-army any longer, he was only one member of the group now, _one part of the solution_ , as Skye had once put it, and whether he had wanted to or not, he had quickly come to realise that that also meant putting his trust in the people around him. And despite of what it might have seemed like to the others, going by one of Fitz’s accusations during their argument, that was exactly what he had done.

For the first time in his life he had actually let his guard down enough to have faith in someone other than himself or his S.O., despite not being honest with them himself, and that was exactly why Skye’s betrayal of the team for Miles Lydon had hurt so much and why he had been so quick to mistrust her again, when she had vanished from their mission together.

Once he had learned more about the young woman, about her past in particular, he had started to see her as something he possibly could have been, a good, morally unquestionable person, who had turned out this way despite all the hardships she had had to endure in her life. Skye had seemed like a moral compass between all the hidden agendas and conspiracies that appeared to stretch into every aspect of his world, but the moment she had lied to him and the team, that small, guiding light had been taken away from him again harshly. Skye’s betrayal had almost completely destroyed his ability and willingness to trust not just her, but anyone else, too, leaving him with nothing but his original mission to follow and causing him to shut himself off from the rest of the team once more.

Ward knew that Skye had been sorry about her actions, that she had regretted them deeply, but while he had actually forgiven her over the weeks following the incident, he had never really seen her the same way as before again. Not until now at least.

He had convinced himself that she was just like him, ready to lie to and deceive even the people closest to her at any moment, and it had taken his rookie being kidnapped and tortured for him to realise how incredibly wrong he had been.

The agent knew that Skye had cooperated with her kidnappers, as she had hacked into SHIELD’s servers for them, but no matter what secrets she had revealed under the torture, that didn’t mean she had betrayed the team. In fact, if her regret for so much as doubting them was any indication, Ward couldn’t even begin to imagine how horrible she had to be feeling for her actions during her imprisonment, proving to him once again beyond any doubt that they were nothing alike.

Skye had made bad decisions in the past, who hadn’t, but what made her such a good person was the fact that she spent every day trying to be better. She was compassionate, honest, and always saw the best in people, even if they didn’t deserve it, while he usually seemed to be expecting the worst from everyone, sometimes even from those who meant the most to him.

Looking at Skye’s soft features, Ward cringed involuntarily, as he imagined what finding out the truth about him, about all the horrible things he had done in his life, would do to her, to the hopeful and optimistic person she was, and for the first time there was a shred of doubt in him if he was actually doing the right thing. He kept telling himself that none of this was personal, but that intense feeling in his chest every time he saw his rookie was making it hard to believe that.

 

* * *

 

Agent Haze was sitting on a bench outside the hospital, slowly sipping her coffee, just enjoying the peace of the moment. She was in a small park at the back of the building, but even though it wasn’t particularly beautiful, the trees and the beds of flowers were creating a very serene atmosphere, added by the fact that it was completely deserted at this hour, making it the perfect place to take a break after what had been a very long couple of days.

She had spoken to Agent Coulson on the phone earlier, giving him Tyler’s prognosis, but she had wanted to stay for a while longer to see if there would be any change in his condition. However, she hadn’t returned to the mercenary’s room yet, the sterile hospital air and the fear in Olivia’s eyes just all too familiar.

Agent Haze briefly closed her eyes as she thought back to the car crash she had been involved in almost twelve years ago, and which had cost her own sister’s life and had sent her to the hospital for several weeks. She knew of course that the circumstances were completely different, that Curtis Tyler had made the choices that had led him here and that he had deserved every single blow of his beating, while her sister had been an innocent victim in an accident that hadn’t been anybody’s fault.

And yet, she actually found herself wishing that Tyler would survive, not because she wanted to honour her promise or because she valued his life, but because she didn’t want to see Olivia, who didn’t even seem to be such a bad person, once she had dropped her bad attitude regarding SHIELD, go through the same grief she had gone through all those years ago.

Even though she knew that it was about time for her to head back, Agent Haze sat in silence for a while longer, but just as she was about to finally get up, she noticed someone heading towards her. A man in his late thirties was approaching her, going by his clothes, another SHIELD agent, but nobody that Haze recognised. She was sure that he hadn’t been with the team during the rescue, but she had no idea where else he could have come from all of a sudden.

“Agent Haze?”, he asked as he came closer, causing the blond woman to stand up slowly, suddenly tense.

“Yes,” she replied warily, scrutinising the unfamiliar agent. When she suddenly noticed that he was holding something in his hand, she briefly thought that it was a weapon, as the area was only dimly lit by the park lamps, but to her relief she quickly realised that it was a cell phone instead, as he raised it to his ear.

“Yes, sir, she’s here,” the man said into the phone, before holding it out to Agent Haze. “Someone wants to talk to you.”

She took the phone hesitantly, a sceptical expression on her face, as she answered the mysterious caller.

“Hello?”, she asked carefully, but as she obviously recognised who she was talking to, she involuntarily stood up straighter, fully alert again.

“Yes, sir, that’s me,” she answered, as the other agent kept watching her closely. The blond woman fell silent, as she just listened to the person on the other end of the line for a while, but going by the increasingly appalled expression on her face, she clearly did not like what she was hearing.

“But I promised his sister…”, she tried to argue, but was quickly interrupted again, falling silent once more, her shoulders slumping a little as her objection was overruled.

“No, sir, of course I understand what an order is,” she replied after a while, and after another long pause she finally added, “Alright, I’ll get it done,” before giving the phone back to the other agent, who switched it off and put it away, handing her a small box in exchange.

“You’ll need this. Everything else has been arranged,” he stated in a short and professional manner, in complete contrast to the computer expert, who clearly still needed a moment to gather herself again.

Haze took the box, which looked like a case for an expensive pen, and just stared at it for a moment in silence, hesitant to follow through with her new mission.

“Why me?”, she finally asked, glancing up at the mysterious agent again. “You could easily do this yourself, in fact, in the time it must have taken you to find me out here, you could have probably finished the job twice. So why does he want me to do this?”

“I don’t know and I don’t ask. But you know there’s always a reason for his orders.”

Sighing heavily, Agent Haze finally nodded and shoved the box into her pocket before heading back inside the hospital, the other agent following her closely.

By the time she was getting closer to Curtis Tyler’s room once again, there was no sign left of her earlier hesitance, and her expression betrayed nothing but cold professionalism as she approached the agent standing guard in front of it.

“Any changes while I was gone?”, the blonde woman asked, as she looked through the half open blinds into the hospital room.

“No, his condition is still the same. The woman fell asleep a while ago, but that’s it.”

“Good,” Agent Haze nodded absentmindedly, as she kept staring through the window, before finally pulling her eyes away from the peaceful scene in the room and facing Olivia’s guard again.

“Alright. Well, Agent Coulson has sent someone to relieve you for now, so you can go and take a break while Agent…”, she trailed off, as she realised that she didn’t even know the name of the mysterious man and looked at him questioningly.

“Wilson,” he supplied helpfully, making Haze wonder if that was actually his name or not.

“While Agent Wilson here is going to take over for you.”

The man standing guard looked back at Haze with mild surprise, obviously wondering why yet another agent had been brought in, when they had been too many here to begin with, but in the end he apparently decided not to question the decisions of his superiors.

“Okay, fine with me,” he quickly agreed and shrugged, before heading down the corridor, already pulling a pack of cigarettes from his pocket.

Haze looked after him until he was out of earshot before speaking again, but even then she still did her best to keep her voice down.

“And you don’t think this is going to be a little too obvious?”, she asked, not even looking at the man next to her.

“He’s a level four agent, just like the other two that were positioned here earlier. They’re better security guards and asking questions is above their pay grade. As for Coulson and his team, they won’t care. You’ll tell them the official version of what happened and they won’t even think to second-guess it.”

Knowing that Agent Wilson was right, Haze swallowed hard, as she realised that there was no way for her to avoid her orders and so she headed into Tyler’s room, careful not to make any noise, as she stepped inside and closed the door behind her.

The mercenary was still lying on the bed unmoving, with no change in his condition, while Olivia had actually managed to fall asleep in her chair, her head resting in a position Haze just knew would leave her with a stiff neck once she woke up again.

So far she obviously hadn’t noticed the agent’s presence though, and Haze moved as silently as possible, as she first closed the blinds at the window completely and then stepped next to Tyler’s bed, pulling out the small box from her pocket again. Her fingers were trembling with trepidation as she finally opened it, and for a moment she just stood there and looked at the syringe inside of it, her expression an emotionless mask not betraying any of her thoughts. After a few seconds however, the agent took a steadying breath, forcing herself to concentrate on her mission once more.

It didn’t matter what her personal feelings were about this assignment, orders were orders; she had never disobeyed one before and had no intention of starting now, especially not for someone like Tyler or even his sister.

Taking the syringe out slowly, Agent Haze put the box aside and took a hold of the tube running from the IV drip into the blond man’s arm, then injected the liquid inside of it at the top, so it would take a moment to get into his system.

As she was finished, Haze put the syringe back into the box, careful not to leave any trace behind that she had done anything to the mercenary and then stepped away from the bed again, still trying not to make a sound.

She froze, as Olivia suddenly stirred slightly, but to the agent’s relief, she merely shifted a little in her seat without actually waking up, allowing her to leave the room in a hurry without the red headed woman noticing her.

When she was back in the corridor, Haze shoved the box at Agent Wilson almost angrily, eager to get rid of it.

“Here, it’s done. Now get that away from me,” she ordered, before she walked a short distance down the corridor and sat down on one of the chairs at the wall, waiting for what was going to happen next.

Agent Wilson simply stored the box away in the inside of his jacket, not saying a word, as he remained in his alert position.

Agent Haze had leaned back in her chair, staring ahead of her, but not seeing anything, until the sound of an alarm going off, followed by a scream from inside Tyler’s room suddenly got her back to her feet. She was through the door in a second, but froze, as she laid eyes on the scene in front of her.

Olivia was standing next to her brother’s bed, shock and fear written all over her face, as she had grabbed him by the shoulders and was shouting at him to come back and that he couldn’t leave her, all while the heart monitor attached to his chest was giving off a high pitched noise, indicating that the mercenary’s heart had stopped beating.

Haze was quickly pushed aside, when Dr. Martin and some other hospital personnel rushed into the room and began trying to resuscitateTyler again, but she barely paid any attention to them, as she could only see Olivia and her increasing desperation. Ultimately it was Agent Wilson, who stepped in to restrain the crying woman and pulled her out of the room, so the doctors and nurses could work without interruption.

It wasn’t long however, until they finally had to admit defeat and one of them turned off the monitors and machines while Dr. Martin stated Curtis Tyler’s time of death.

Agent Haze simply nodded in acknowledgement, as she walked outside, where she looked around only to find Olivia sitting in the same chair she had occupied herself only a few minutes ago. Agent Wilson was standing in front of her, obviously ready to catch her should she make any indication to get up from her seat again, but as she saw the look on Agent Haze’s face as she headed towards her, Olivia broke down completely, sobbing uncontrollably.

“No!”, she wailed desperately, as Haze motioned to Agent Wilson to step aside before she crouched down in front of the red headed woman, knowing exactly what she was just going through. Before she could say anything however, any words of sympathy that would only feel like a cruel joke and would leave a bitter taste in her mouth, Olivia suddenly wrapped her arms around the agent’s neck, crying bitterly against her shoulder.

**To be continued…**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As I had already mentioned in some replies to reviews to this story, I decided to work Ward being Hydra into the story, something I had obviously not foreseen when I had started writing this, but let me promise you here and now, that this is not going to change the outcome of this fanfiction. No matter what an evil bastard Ward turned out to be on the show, in this story he is one of the good guys, and while his connection to Garrett will obviously have to be dealt with eventually, he's not going to turn against the team.
> 
> I know this chapter was very heavy on OCs, but I hope you still enjoyed it and it would make my day if you would tell me what you think! :)


	32. Compromised

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun Fact about this chapter: The scene between Coulson and Ward is actually one of the first things I ever wrote for this story when I started it back in early season 1. It's crazy to think how long ago that was.

Agent Coulson was standing in his office, looking at his collection of SHIELD memorabilia, deep in thought. He knew that many considered his hobby a strange obsession, maybe even a first sign of a midlife crisis, but he just loved to be reminded of the vast history behind the organisation he was working for and of the generations that had fought to make this world a better and safer place for the people who lived in it. And he also liked to imagine that all those agents, whose work he was continuing would appreciate that their struggles, their sacrifices, had not been forgotten.

Maybe he was romanticising history, like Camilla Reyes had once accused him, before trying to hijack his plane, but he didn’t care. Because no matter how bad a situation was, or what difficult decisions he was facing, his souvenirs, his _touchstones to the past_ , always helped him to keep in mind what was important.

_“You value really old stuff. And you value me.”_ Skye’s words on one of the first occasions she had been in his office and had taken a closer look at his collection. She had been right on both accounts, of course, and even his anger at her for lying to him and the team about Miles Lydon had only been as intense for that very reason.

Because caring for the members of his team and being worried about them didn’t mean that he couldn’t be furious with them as well, if they messed up, just like he was furious with Agent Ward right now ever since getting off the phone with Agent Haze a few hours ago.

Curtis Tyler was dead, had succumbed to his injuries despite the earlier optimistic prognosis, leaving Coulson more than frustrated, because he had been counting on the chance to interrogate the mercenary to learn more about the so-called ‘Clairvoyant’ that had tipped off his boss about the impending attack.

While Haze was still at the hospital, having offered to deal with the technicalities of Tyler’s death, the plane had remained on the ground, and the team was using a nearby hangar at the airfield to temporarily store the equipment they had found at the factory and catalogue all of it before shipping it off to SHIELD for further investigations. In addition to that, they were also keeping some of the prisoners they had captured during the rescue mission there, to question them before they were sent to a detainment facility.

Agent May had already spoken to some of them yesterday, but it appeared as if the ‘Colonel’ had kept most of his plans very close to his chest and the majority of his men had simply been following his orders blindly without really knowing anything or even bothering to ask questions.

Given his reputation however, Coulson was sure that Tyler wouldn’t have been taking orders from anyone without knowing what he was getting himself into, meaning that he could have cleared up a lot of the questions that still remained even now that Skye had been rescued.

While their theory of a connection between Talos and Centipede had been verified by now, explaining how Tyler had known how to trick the team so effectively, the exact reason why Skye had been kidnapped was still a mystery, leaving Coulson with an uneasy feeling.

Judging by the fact that they had never encountered Talos before this mission, but had been on Centipede’s trail for a while now, it only made sense that the latter organisation had named his team, and maybe even Skye specifically, as the target. However, if Haze’s theory, that the Clairvoyant had connections within SHIELD, or was maybe even an agent him- or herself, was true, then that also meant that it had been someone from inside the agency, who had sold his team out.

Coulson’s jaw clenched in anger at the thought, as he took his eyes off his collection and went over to sit at his desk, still trying to wrap his head around these implications.

Skye had gone through hell these last few days, as he had been able to see for himself by now, and while the decision not to focus on the search for her immediately had been his own and he still needed to apologise for it to the young woman, the mere idea that Centipede had someone within SHIELD, who had set all of this up, had him rattled to the core and he would do everything in his power to find this traitor – or possibly _these traitors_ – and hold them responsible for what they had done to his team’s rookie.

For now however, he would have to deal with a more imminent problem first and figure out what to do with Agent Ward, as there was a sudden knock on the door, interrupting the silence.

 

* * *

 

As Agent Ward was climbing up the steps of the spiral staircase to Coulson’s office, he wasn’t really sure what to expect. The agent had asked him earlier to come up, but without revealing what he wanted to talk to him about. However, as he knew that Coulson wanted to speak with Skye later as well, Ward assumed that he probably just wanted to get her S.O.’s opinion on how she was doing so far.

“Come in,” Coulson’s voice came from inside, as Ward gently knocked on the door of his office.

“You wanted to see me, sir?”

“Yes, come in and please close the door behind you.”

His brow furrowing in confusion, Ward did as he was asked, neither of the two men saying another word until he had sat down opposite from Coulson, waiting for his superior to tell him what this was all about.

“How are your hands?”, the older agent asked, looking at the white bandages still wrapped around Ward’s knuckles, but even though the tone of his voice was completely friendly, the specialist knew that this was more than just an innocuous inquiry about his wellbeing.

However, as he didn’t want to be confrontational, Ward still answered truthfully, flexing his fingers slightly as he did so.

“Better already. They’re still hurting a little, but it’s not going to impair my work.”

“Good.” Coulson simply nodded in acknowledgment, but the way he kept looking at the younger agent in front of him had Ward increasingly worried about what was going on.

“Sir, if you don’t mind me asking, why am I here? It looks like there’s something bothering you.”

“Yes, you’re right. You see, I got a call from Agent Haze a few hours ago, from the hospital where Tyler was being treated, and she informed me that he died last night from the injuries you inflicted on him.”

There was a long silence following this new revelation while Ward’s face remained completely impassive. When he finally answered, there was a distinct trace of anger in his voice, but if Coulson noticed, he didn’t show.

“And am I supposed to feel sorry about that now? You know that he didn’t just interrogate Skye while he had her locked up in that hell hole, he _tortured_ her. I realise that the plan was for him to survive, but I’m sure as hell not going to feel bad that he didn’t,” Ward burst out, the mere idea that Coulson was actually reprimanding him for the mercenary’s fate seeming absolutely outrageous to him.

“Yes, you’re right, that was the plan,” Coulson replied, his steady voice a sharp contrast to Ward’s, “and I’m not even talking about the deal we made with Olivia for the information she provided. Her brother could have given us extremely valuable intel, but all of that is lost now, because you couldn’t rein in your temper when you should have just taken him in.”

Ward’s expression darkened slightly at Coulson’s words, a sign that his superior’s criticism was actually getting to him, but when he replied, the anger in his voice from earlier was almost completely gone, as he was making a conscious effort to remain level-headed, despite the urge to defend himself against the accusation.

“I already told you what happened back at the factory. Tyler had the beating coming, but if I had known that he had been lying about killing Skye, I would have stopped sooner. I’ll admit that it would have been preferable had we been able to interrogate him.”

“Yes. Yes it would have been. And then I also wouldn’t have to deal with one of my agents beating an unarmed man to death.”

Coulson was completely matter-of-factly about this, causing Ward to finally realise the seriousness of his situation. He had already been wondering what Tyler’s potential death could mean for him, and right now it didn’t seem as if his C.O. was willing to go easy on him, despite his earlier understanding reaction. However, even though Ward was obviously well aware now that simply arresting the mercenary would have been the better decision, he just couldn’t bring himself to feel guilty about what had he had done. Not after seeing the bruises left on Skye’s skin and the fear still present in her eyes.

Swallowing hard, Ward looked straight at Coulson, willing to face the consequences of his actions, even though he was worried about what that could mean for his future on the team.

“I know that there are protocols for this kind of situation, so I assume you’re going to send me back to the Hub to face a review board.But whatever they decide, I just hope that you and the rest of the team won’t think badly of me because of this. I understand that I went too far, but I was only thinking of Skye. I had to make Tyler pay for what he did to her.”

“And there we have the problem, don’t we?”, Coulson asked gently, startling the specialist.

“Sir?”, he asked, clearly confused.

“You were not thinking clearly. You had your orders, but you were acting unprofessionally, irrationally, potentially endangering your entire team in the process.” Coulson leaned back in his chair, studying the younger agent in front of him for a moment before continuing.

“I understand why you acted the way you did, Ward, but by letting your emotions get the better of you, you gave Tyler exactly what he wanted. You said he provoked you to kill him to avoid imprisonment, and I think you’re right, but what that tells me is that he successfully managed to manipulate you right until the end.

He had figured out what Skye means to you, that she has _compromised_ you and that it’s affecting your judgment and therefore your ability to do your job.”

Ward stared at his superior for a few seconds, not knowing what to say to that. He couldn’t even completely deny it, as he knew it was true.

He had always done his best to handle his relationship with Skye professionally, aware that he couldn’t afford to let anyone get too close to him, but somehow she had still managed to become more to him than just his rookie. And while neither of them had ever said anything or made a move, Ward had to admit that the thought of Skye and him being more than just friends had already crossed his mind a few times.

But, as he suddenly realised, he wasn’t the only one the young hacker meant a lot to.

“I’m very protective of her, that’s true, so if you want to call it that, fine, but are you sure I’m the only one she’s compromised?” Going by the look on his face, Coulson obviously didn’t like where this was going, but before he could say anything, Ward continued.

“I know you have a soft spot for her, too, sir. Otherwise you wouldn’t even have let her join in the first place or kept her around after the situation with Miles Lydon. We both know that Fitzsimmons adore her and Agent May... well, you’ve seen how she goes out of her way at the moment to make sure Skye gets better,” he explained, still slightly surprised about the compassionate behaviour of the usually so distant agent.

“You see, the point I’m trying to make is that Skye has compromised all of us, and it’s not necessarily a bad thing. It just means that we work more closely together as a team.”

There was a small smile on Coulson’s lips, as he looked at Ward in silence for a long moment, giving the agent hope that his C.O. might be able to lessen his punishment for what he had done to Tyler, even though he wasn’t even sure if that was actually in his powers.

“That may very well be,” Coulson finally answered, his voice grim, “but there is still the fact that none of the others have recently beaten anyone to death as far as I’m aware. And I cannot just let that slide.”

Ward nodded dejectedly, already fearing the worst, but his expression lit up noticeably as the older agent continued.

“But for the time being, I will not let you go in front of a review board. You will remain with the team, but you are suspended from active duty for the next few weeks with further disciplinary measures possible as I see fit. You will also be confined to the Bus for that entire duration, but try not to bother Fitzsimmons, Agent May or myself too much as we actually have some work to do.”

Not really sure what was happening right now, but with the growing feeling that it was something surprisingly good, Ward just stared at Coulson, at a loss for words.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some important files to get back to.” Coulson made a shooing motion in Ward’s direction, finally causing the younger agent to get up from his seat, still a little overwhelmed by the turn this conversation had just taken.

As he was already walking towards the door, he stopped and looked back at his C.O. once more.

“Sir?”

As Coulson looked up from his work, Ward nodded at him with gratitude.

“Thank you.”

Coulson merely returned the nod curtly, but even though Ward knew that this was supposed to be his final cue to leave, he lingered for another moment, something else still on his mind. His superior’s eyebrows rose slightly at the younger agent’s continued presence, finally prompting him to explain himself.

“Actually, sir, there is something I wanted to ask from you, a favour of sorts.” He was obviously hesitant to come out with the whole truth, but as Coulson remained quiet, Ward ultimately decided to just stop beating around the bush and say what had been on his mind ever since his conversation with Skye last night.

“You know how… _badly_ I reacted when Skye went missing, how convinced I was that she had just walked out on me on that mission, that she had betrayed our team and SHIELD with it.” The remorseful expression on his features easily betrayed his immense regret about his attitude after Skye’s disappearance, but as he wasn’t here to apologise for it, as Coulson wasn’t the one whose forgiveness he needed, he quickly schooled his expression into a more impassive one, as his C.O. replied to him.

“Ward, you weren’t the only one, who had his doubts about Skye-”

“I didn’t have ‘doubts’, I was _sure_ ,” the specialist interrupted him, his voice harsh for a moment. “And I was wrong. I haven’t told Skye yet, but I will, and…” he took a deep breath at this point, knowing that he had a lot to make up to the young woman. “And it has to be me, who tells her.”

At this point Coulson finally nodded understandingly, having realised what exactly Ward was asking of him.

“So you want me not to say anything to her before you have the chance to,” he elaborated the younger man’s unspoken request, causing him to nod in agreement.

“Yes. I actually did have my chance already, and I blew it, but the last thing I want is for Skye to hear this from somebody else. I don’t think she would be surprised to find out that we considered all possibilities after her disappearance, but the way I mistrusted her…”

Ward trailed off at this, knowing that Coulson understood what he had been trying to say, which was confirmed as his C.O. finally replied.

“Alright, I’ll make sure not to bring your part in all this up, when I talk to Skye later,” he promised to the specialist’s obvious relief.

“Thank you, sir,” Ward answered in return, and as he didn’t want to bother his superior any longer, he finally left the office, the weight on his heart much lighter than before.

After the younger agent had left, Coulson leaned back in his office chair once more, going over the conversation again in his mind. He could have told Ward about the connection between Talos and Centipede they had discovered of course, or asked him about his opinion on this so-called ‘Clairvoyant’, but while he trusted the younger agent completely, he still felt that it was best if as few people as possible knew about all of this.

Coulson had decided to keep this new information under wraps and not disclose it to SHIELD just yet, but that was his decision and he didn’t want the members of his team to have to choose between their loyalty to him and to the organisation they were working for.

As for Tyler saving Skye’s life before the team had attacked the factory, he had thought about telling Ward, but had ultimately decided against it, as he didn’t want Skye to find out and he didn’t want the specialist to have to keep it from her.

Coulson still stood by his earlier accusation, that Ward had been compromised by the young woman, but maybe the agent was right and that really didn’t have to be a bad thing. After all, he had always wanted to improve the younger man’s people skills and it did seem as if his rookie was having a positive effect on him in that regard.

However, even though he had decided to give Ward only a very mild punishment for what he had done to Tyler, at least for the moment, he wasn’t going to just forget what had happened. The operative agent had violated his orders and killed a defenceless man, no matter how much Tyler had deserved it, and somehow Coulson would have to find a way to deal with that.

But for now, he knew that Ward’s presence on the Bus was essential, if he wanted Skye to get better. The hacker was looking up to her S.O., who clearly had a stabilising effect on her, despite their constant arguments, and Coulson was convinced that Ward would be there for her every step of the way of her recovery, no matter what.

 

* * *

 

It was about an hour after Ward had left, when there was another hesitant knock on the door and a moment later Skye stood in the doorway, looking at Coulson almost nervously.

“Hey, AC, you wanted to talk to me,” she greeted him with a barely visible smile, causing the agent to stand up from his chair immediately and step around his desk, doing his best not to make the young woman feel like she had been called into the principal’s office.

“Yes, Skye, please come in.” Coulson pulled the wooden chair standing in front of his desk closer, while indicating to the hacker to take a seat on the couch next to the door. After they had both sat down, it was completely quiet for a long moment, as Skye’s eyes were wandering around the office, looking everywhere but at her commanding officer.

“How are you doing?”, Coulson finally asked after taking a while to study his team’s rookie, not liking the way she was avoiding his gaze, as it was so completely unlike her.

Apparently noticing her nervous behaviour herself now, Skye looked at her superior with a brief smile, her hands, which had been fidgeting in her lap so far, locking tightly, finally lying still.

“It’s been barely a day since you rescued me, so everything’s still a little too fresh, but give me a few more days and I’ll be as good as new,” she announced with an optimistic expression, but Coulson knew the young woman well enough by now to know that she was lying to him. This time however, he was less angry about it than concerned that she would downplay her condition to him.

But as he didn’t want to push Skye or make her any more uncomfortable than she obviously already was, he didn’t question her answer.

“That’s good to hear, Skye, but I want you to know that you can take all the time you need to recover after what happened to you. There’s no need to rush back into active duty and we’ll see what Simmons says about you resuming some light training at some point.”

The expression on the hacker’s face was clearly startled, showing that she had not expected to hear this from her C.O., her voice both angry and defensive as she finally replied.

“So does that mean you’re suspending me from working with you guys now? I mean, I know I messed up on this last mission, but you can’t kick me off the team for that! And I need Ward to continue training me as soon as possible, and I mean _properly_ train me. I know I haven’t shown a lot of dedication to it so far, so we could really only do baby steps, but I’m committed now. I want to be able to defend myself if I ever get into a situation like this again, so-”

“Alright, slow down, Skye,” Coulson finally interrupted the agitated young woman, holding up his hands in a calming gesture. “Nobody is talking about suspending you, or kicking you off the team, you know that I would never do that. All I’m saying is that you might need more rest than you’re aware of right now, so you shouldn’t push yourself too hard. And just for the record, I did not think, for even a single moment, that you _‘messed up’_ on your last assignment. How could you ever get that idea?”

“Because it’s true,” the hacker answered without missing a beat. “I know that the meeting with Dr. O’Leary was a trap, that Jack and his guys were blocking my radio connection to Ward, to kidnap me without him realising, but if I had just noticed that sooner, none of this would have happened. To figure out that someone was messing with the signal, that would have been part of my job. I screwed up and I paid the price for that.”

It was silent in the office once more, as Coulson looked at the young woman for a moment, choosing his next words very carefully. Skye kept staring down at her hands the entire time, not seeing the guilty expression on her C.O.’s face.

“You’re right, Skye, it was a trap, but the truth is that we _all_ screwed up and you’re the only one, who had to suffer the consequences of that.” Coulson sighed deeply, still feeling frustrated that he and his team had been so easily manipulated.

“You see, the entire meeting was a set-up from Talos. O’Leary has been dead for years and he was never with Centipede in the first place. He was just a decoy used to lure us into the open to get to you. It _was_ a trap, but none of us saw it coming, Skye, so there is no point in blaming yourself.”

The hacker let out a small chuckle, shaking her head slightly.

“I don’t even know if that makes it better or worse,” she said uncertainly, wondering about the implications of Talos having such an elaborate plan just to be able to kidnap her. She had already figured that her abduction hadn’t been by chance, given Miles’ involvement in all of it, but to think that somebody would go to such lengths just to get to her was still astounding.

“Do you know why Talos even wanted me?”, she finally asked, looking at Coulson questioningly.

The agent hesitated a moment before answering, well aware that Skye deserved to know the truth, but still not willing to divulge all the information. In the end he chose to tell her what he could without giving her any intel that he deemed too sensitive at the moment.

“We have several leads pointing to a connection between Talos and Centipede and our theory at the moment is that they named our team as a target for Talos. Why they went after you specifically, I don’t know, but I could imagine that they might have been interested in your hacking abilities or to use you as leverage against us at some point.

Don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of this eventually, but right now I’m just glad that we found you, Skye, and that we were able to rescue you, before Tyler could hurt you even more. I know what you went through was horrible, but I’m very relieved that you haven’t been injured more severely.”

Skye swallowed hard, casting her eyes down once more as she replied, her lips trembling.

“Well, I’m not,” she uttered quietly, a single tear running down her cheek, but she turned her head away from Coulson and wiped it away quickly, not wanting to appear weak in front of him.

“What?”, the agent asked in surprise, pulling his chair closer to the hacker.

“Skye, why would you say something like that?” As she didn't answer and kept facing away from him, Coulson reached out and took the young woman’s hand in his, his concern for her increasing steadily.

“Please, talk to me!”, he urged her gently, finally getting her to look at him again, even if only hesitantly. However, the tears shining in Skye’s eyes and the shattered expression on her face were breaking Coulson’s heart before she had even said anything.

“You know that I love being a part of this team, right? I know that I let you guys down before, when I tipped off Miles and by not telling you the truth about why I had wanted to join SHIELD in the first place, but after that I promised you – I promised _myself_ – that that would never happen again. That I would have your back no matter what and that I would train hard to become a proper SHIELD agent one day. I wanted to make sure that you wouldn’t regret giving me another chance and that somewhere down the line you could actually be proud of me.

But the truth is that I didn’t just let you down again, I betrayed you,” Skye finally admitted, her voice breaking.

“Jack, he... he was asking me questions. At first only about the team, but later about other stuff, too. The work I did for SHIELD, the cases I had been involved with or knew about, and what I found when I hacked into your data transfers.” Skye stopped and took a deep breath before she found the strength to continue, her voice still trembling as she did.

“I swear I didn’t want to give up any information, but he tortured me every time I lied to him or refused to answer. I tried to hold out, I really did, but... but at some point – I don’t even know how long it took – I just couldn’t take it anymore. I just wanted the pain to stop and I gave you up. You, the team, SHIELD. I told Jack everything I knew, I even hacked into SHIELD’s system for him, just so he wouldn’t start hurting me again. I’m… I’m _sorry_ … _I’m so sorry_ ,” Skye sobbed, finally breaking down completely.

**To be continued…**


	33. Now You Have Your Answer

**

“I just wanted the pain to stop and I gave you up. You, the team, SHIELD. I told Jack everything I knew, I even hacked into SHIELD’s system for him, just so he wouldn’t start hurting me again. I’m… I’m _sorry_ … _I’m so sorry_ ,” Skye sobbed, finally breaking down completely.

**

Coulson knew that he should have anticipated this.

Ever since Agent Haze had told the team what she knew about the man, who had abducted Skye, he had been painfully aware that even in the best case scenario, the young woman would be extremely traumatised once she was freed and back on the Bus.

However, even though they had all known that the hacker had cooperated with her kidnappers from the moment she had wiped the files about Talos and Centipede from SHIELD’s systems, the one thing Coulson had not seen coming was the amount of blame she was still putting on herself for all of this even now. Obviously, Skye considered helping Tyler to be a much worse betrayal than lying to them to protect Miles Lydon, no matter the completely different circumstances.

As he was looking at the young woman’s desolate appearance, Coulson couldn’t help but think back to the surveillance footage from her cell, which, while incomplete and only covering a fracture of her imprisonment, had given him more than a good impression of the pain and suffering she had had to endure before finally giving in to her interrogator’s demands. And considering how long Skye had withstood the torture, despite lacking any training that could have prepared her for it, he was slightly bewildered as to how she could actually believe that he or any of the others would think any less of her for what she had done.

After getting up from his chair, Coulson quietly moved over to the couch to sit right next to Skye, who was burying her face in her hands, still crying, and carefully laid an arm around the desolate hacker, doing his best to console her, as she was being overwhelmed by her guilt. His eyes were filled with compassion and regret, as he was wishing for the umpteenth time that they had found her sooner, and knowing that it was his responsibility now to make sure that she would get better soon.

“Skye, hey, it’s alright,” he assured her, his voice soft as he pulled the young woman against his chest and ran a hand across her hair gently. “Trust me, you don’t have to be sorry, not for _anything_ that happened over these past few days, because none of it was your fault. I know that you fought back against Tyler for as long as you could. You showed extreme bravery under impossible circumstances and even though you did give in eventually, that does _not_ mean that you betrayed anyone.”

As Skye finally let her hands sink again, Coulson already thought that he had managed to reach her, but when the hacker glanced up at him, her face tearstained, she was shaking her head, obviously not agreeing with him.

“But you wouldn’t have told Jack anything. And neither would have Ward or Agent May. But I did. I just… gave up, so how can I even dream of becoming a SHIELD agent if I’m broken that easily?”

Coulson obviously wanted to reply something to that, but before he could say anything, Skye continued, her voice sounding completely hollow as she did.

“A few weeks back, when we were all at the Hub and you were angry at me for looking into Ward and Fitz’s mission data, you said that you needed to know if I could keep a secret. I guess now you have your answer,” she finished, fresh tears falling from her eyes once more, causing both pain and anger to flare up in Coulson’s chest.

Pain, because seeing the team’s rookie this miserable and desperate was hitting him a lot harder than he would have liked, reminding the agent more and more of how right Ward had been with his earlier observation that they had _all_ been compromised by the young woman. Skye was like the daughter he had never had and even though Coulson knew that he couldn’t protect her from everything, not in this business, the mere thought that he might be unable to help her now was completely unbearable.

The anger he was feeling, however, was not just directed at Tyler, for hurting Skye and for forcing her to work against the team by exploiting the strained trust between them, just as she had been trying so hard to prove herself to her team mates. No, it was also directed at himself, for making the young woman doubt the place she had in their group and for the fact that it were his words, spoken in anger, that were making her feel even worse now, no matter how out of context she had taken them.

Shaking his head decisively, Coulson reached out and took both of Skye’s hands before she could bury her face in them again, and looked at the young woman intensely, as if trying to emphasise his words.

“This has nothing to do with what we were talking about back then, Skye. You’re probably right and under the same circumstances May, Ward or I wouldn’t have talked, but that is completely irrelevant, because all three of us have already spent years working in the field and we have been trained for situations like this. Extensively.” At this point Coulson lifted one hand and laid it gently on the young woman’s cheek. For a brief moment she flinched almost unnoticeably at the touch, but as she knew that the agent wasn’t going to hurt her, she relaxed again quickly as he continued.

“Skye, you weren’t prepared for anything of what happened to you and you still held out a lot longer under the torture than many agents in your position would have, so believe me when I tell you that you don’t have to blame yourself for anything. I think, no, I _know_ that you’re going to make a great agent one day, because you’re strong, you’re resilient, and you always get back on your feet, no matter what. I have faith in you, Skye, and I think it’s time that you have some in yourself as well,” Coulson finished with a kind smile, running a thumb across the young woman’s cheek gently, wiping away some of her tears.

It was silent in the office for a few moments, aside from Skye still sniffling slightly, but when the hacker finally answered, it wasn’t exactly what Coulson had expected.

“How would you even know that, for how long I held out, I mean”, she asked, shaking her head sceptically.

Coulson looked at her hesitantly for a second, as he still hadn’t decided if he should actually tell the hacker about the existence of the video footage from her imprisonment and torture. He could only image how hard that would be to hear for her at first, but ultimately he came to the conclusion that he had no right to keep this information from her any longer.

In addition to that, Coulson also had the faint hope, that the realisation that he already knew what she had been through could make it easier for Skye to speak with him about her experience and eventually help her face it, and so he finally decided to tell her the truth.

“Skye, I know what Tyler did to you, and how hard you tried to stand up to him, because there was video surveillance in the room they held you prisoner in. A good part of the records was destroyed by Green’s men when we attacked their hideout, but we were able to salvage enough of the data so that I know what you had to go through.”

“What?“ Skye asked in return, her eyes wide, but still shining with tears. “You saw what…”, she broke off, clasping one hand over her mouth in shock, taking the information even harder than Coulson had anticipated.

“Who else? Who else saw what… what he did to me?“ she asked, obviously terrified by the thought that Ward or someone else from her team had seen her being tortured.

“Only Agent May, Agent Haze and I saw those videos and don’t worry, I fully intend to keep it that way. None of the others saw the footage, and the only way they’ll find out what Tyler did to you, is if you tell them on your own terms,” Coulson replied, guessing her thoughts.

While she obviously still didn't like the idea of a recording of her ordeal existing, Skye was clearly relieved by this answer and took a deep breath to calm herself, doing her best to keep her emotions under control.

As their conversation had died down for the moment, Skye suddenly stood up and took a few steps to the other side of Coulson’s office, where she studied his SHIELD collection for a moment, taking the opportunity to wipe the rest of the tears from her face, trying to compose herself again.

She knew that she had every right to be emotional right now, but she still inwardly reprimanded herself for crying in front of her C.O., no matter how understanding he had been.

“Skye, there is something else I need to tell you,” Coulson suddenly spoke up again, but as she had been lost in her own thoughts, the hacker had barely been paying any attention to him, and cut him off unexpectedly, looking at the agent, slightly perplexed.

“How did you find me?“ she wondered, leaning against Coulson’s desk absentmindedly. “Sorry, I know this is a little out of the blue, but I just realised I never asked before. I know that Jack left a note behind in that hotel room for Ward to findand that he made it look like I had just left, but obviously you still searched for me or else I wouldn’t be here right now. But even I didn’t know where I was, so how did you manage to track me down?”

Coulson sighed, as he looked up at the hacker, regret shining in his eyes once more, as he thought back to those first few hours after Skye’s disappearance and the fact that pretty much every single one of his decisions had turned out to be exactly the wrong one.

“You’re right, there was a note, and not a single sign that you had been forced to leave and with O’Leary still missing – before we knew that all of that had been a set-up – I’ll admit that it threw us off for a while. And for that I am truly sorry, Skye. If we, if _I_ , had reacted sooner, it could have spared you a lot of pain. Maybe we could have even found you before Tyler ever had the chance to start questioning you.”

However, even though Coulson had expected the young woman to be hurt by this confession, she seemed to be taking it surprisingly well, with only the wistful smile on her lips betraying her underlying sadness, as she answered him.

“It’s okay, really. I was Jack’s prisoner for days, and if there’s one thing he’s good at, it’s manipulating people, so to be honest, I would have been surprised if you guys hadn’t fallen for his tricks. But you started looking for me eventually, right? I mean, you found me after all,” the hacker noted, causing Coulson to correct her immediately.

“We were looking for you from the beginning, Skye, you just weren’t our priority at first. But after Fitz analysed your laptop and realised that someone had been tampering with it, and I recruited Agent Haze to our team, we ultimately got on the right track again and focused all our resources on finding you.”

“Okay, but I thought you wanted Agent Haze to help with the search for Dr. O’Leary. What did that have to do with me?“ Skye asked, obviously confused about the female agent’s role in her rescue.

“We were looking for O’Leary and were one computer expert short, that’s one reason why I brought her on the team, yes, but do you remember what I told you about your SHIELD bracelet, that all your interactions with electronic devices would be monitored?” He waited for Skye to react and she nodded briefly reply, as she sat down on his desk, intrigued by the question. The young woman didn’t say anything, though, and just waited for her C.O. to continue his explanation.

“Agent Haze was the one doing the monitoring. But she also helped us a great deal with finding you, so I hope you won’t hold that against her,” Coulson was quick to point out, a slight smile on his lips.

Obviously taken completely by surprise by this, Skye stared at Coulson for a moment, dumbfounded. As she finally spoke again, the tone of her voice was more perplexed than angry.

“So… Agent Haze was my internet nanny this whole time?“ she asked, unable to keep herself from displaying a lopsided grin at the expression.

“Yes, although I’m not so sure if she would like being called that,” Coulson replied, glad that Skye’s mood had at least slightly improved for the moment.

The hacker listened carefully as he continued to give her a quick rundown of what else had happened on the Bus during her absence, from Agent Haze’s knowledge about Curtis Tyler, to finding his sister and ultimately connecting all their intel to find the location where she had been taken. The only thing he had left out so far had been the disappearance of Miles Lydon, and how it had helped them find a lead on Tyler in the first place, as he wanted to break the news to her as gently as possible.

However, when Skye finally spoke again, after having been quiet for a while, it was Coulson’s turn to be caught off guard, as it seemed like she had been reading his thoughts.

“That factory where you found me, you searched the whole place, didn’t you?“ the young woman asked tentatively, while she was looking down at her hands, a part of her clearly reluctant to hear his answer.

“Yes, why?“ Coulson replied, obviously not sure where the young woman was going with her question.

“I know I wasn’t the only one Talos had kidnapped. They had Miles, too, and while I never actually saw him, I’m sure he must have told them about me and our team, so that whenever I tried to lie to Jack, he already knew.” She broke off for a moment at this point, trying not to lose her composure once again. “Jack, he… he said Miles was dead, and… and I think he was actually telling the truth, so… there must have been a body somewhere, right?”

Coulson hesitated to answer, taking a moment to study his team’s rookie, as he was trying to determine how she was handling the situation. Even if Lydon’s death wasn’t news to her, he was still aware that the two had been very close once and losing him, especially under these circumstances, couldn’t be easy for her.

When he finally answered, there was a sad expression on his face, but he knew that Skye had a right to hear the whole story.

“Yes, there was,” he admitted slowly, knowing how hard this had to be to hear for Skye. “Before we found you, we already knew that Miles Lydon was with your kidnappers, either as another victim, or as an accomplice, we weren’t sure at first, but one of the soldiers we took prisoner told us what happened to him. Agent May found his body yesterday, but I wanted to give you the chance to get at least some rest before I told you about him.”

“So that was her secret mission that nobody wanted to tell me about,” the hacker pointed out, a pained expression on her face, as the death of her former boyfriend was catching up with her once more.

Now that she was safe again, she felt horrible, and not just about losing him, but also for suppressing any thoughts of his death during her imprisonment, leaving her with only a reminder of the very real danger she had been in.

“Miles was kidnapped and tortured, because of me, they even cut off his hand and once he had given them the information they wanted, he was useless to them, so they just… they just killed him, they tossed him aside like he was nothing.”

Despite her earlier resolution not to cry again, tears were falling from Skye’s eyes once more, but before Coulson could react in any way, she looked at him, her expression resolute.

“I want to see him,” she announced, causing a concerned frown to form on her C.O.’s face.

“I don’t think that that’s a good idea, Skye,” he replied carefully, not wanting to upset the young woman any further, but going by the look on her face, that attempt had been rather futile.

“Why? What did they do to him?”, she asked, her expression horrified.

Coulson shook his head as he answered Skye, less concerned about Lydon’s death, than about the effect it was having on his team’s rookie, the tone of his voice comforting.

“You already know that he was missing a hand, but apart from that, they didn’t do anything to his body except bury it. But he has been dead for over a week now, Skye, I just think that it would be better if you remember Miles the way you knew him.”

It took the young woman a moment to collect herself again, but she finally nodded reluctantly and when she spoke once more, her voice sounded absolutely sincere.

“I know I said that already, but thank you, and I mean not just for saving me, but for taking them all down. Jack, his boss, and all those Talos guys. They were murderers and evil and even if I’m probably not going to sleep well for weeks, I’m still glad to know they’re gone.”

Coulson nodded at this, as he realised that it might be the only positive aspect of Skye’s entire ordeal; something for her to hold onto, to make what had happened to her at least somewhat more bearable.

“I know you can’t just push aside what happened, Skye, but I want you to know that you’re safe,” he assured her, the look in his eyes absolutely genuine. “Tyler isn’t going to hurt you ever again.”

Skye nodded slowly in reply, although she didn’t seem entirely concinved.

“I know. I’ve seen what Ward did to him and I know that he’s going to the Fridge now, but-”

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Coulson interrupted her, shaking his head. “Tyler isn’t going to the Fridge. He died last night at the hospital.”

Caught completely off guard by the news, Skye just stared at Coulson for a long moment, not really sure how to react. When she finally replied, her voice was filled with disbelief.

“Are you sure? I mean he faked his death before, so maybe he managed to do it again somehow,” she speculated, but her C.O. gave her a reassuring smile, trying to alleviate her worries.

“Yes, I’m sure. Agent Haze was there, she saw him die, and trust me, this time, he’s not coming back.”

 

* * *

 

As the black car with the white SHIELD logo on the side was making its way onto the airfield where the Bus was still parked and towards the nearby hangar, Agent Haze turned slightly in her seat next to the driver to look at the woman sitting in the back.

Olivia hadn’t said a single word the entire way back from the hospital and was staring out the window at the moment, obviously lost in her own thoughts. Her eyes were still slightly red, even though she hadn’t been crying for a while now, but Haze knew that the pain of losing her brother was still fresh and raw, and she sighed unconsciously at the thought that she had been the one, who had caused this.

She still hated the order she had been given, but as she was convinced that Agent Wilson had been right earlier, and that there was always a good reason behind her employer’s commands, she had decided to go through with it, and now it was obviously too late to change anything. Tyler was gone and it was up to her now to make sure that his sister could move on from her loss, starting with wrapping up her dealings with SHIELD.

They had arrived at their destination now, and Haze focused back on the present, knowing that this wasn’t the time to dwell on her guilty conscience any further.

She and Olivia got out of the car near the entrance of the hangar, the latter wearing a pair of handcuffs, and Agent Haze led them into the building and towards one of the offices near the back.

She knew that she probably should have brought the forger back to the interrogation cell in the Bus, but as she wanted to keep her out of Skye’s and especially Agent Ward’s way, she had decided to take her here to the hangar instead.

They were already using it for both storage and as a temporary prison at the moment, and she was hoping that it would seem less intimidating to Olivia than the dark cell on the plane. As far as Haze was concerned, the red headed woman had gone through enough lately and as she was going to be released soon anyway, she didn’t see any reason to keep treating her like a dangerous criminal.

They made their way past a couple of SHIELD agents, who were still busy cataloguing everything they had found in Talos’ hideout, ranging from weapons and technical equipment to even some alien materials, but as far as she knew, they hadn’t found any dangerous items yet.

When they entered the empty office, which was usually occupied by the manager of the airfield, going by the sign on the door, Agent Haze indicated to Olivia to sit on one of the chairs at the table that was standing at the opposite wall from the main desk.

“Sorry about the cuffs,” she said in a kind voice, pulling out a small key to unlock the metal handcuffs around the forger’s wrists, “but as you’re officially still a prisoner, they’re mandatory during transport.”

As the red headed woman still remained silent, Agent Haze sat down in the chair opposite from her, studying her for a long moment before continuing.

“I know that you don’t want to be here. You just lost your brother and I can imagine how that must hurt, so of course the last thing you want to do right now is to answer any more of our questions, but I’ll do my best that all of this will be over as quickly as possible. You already helped us a great deal and as far as I’m concerned, we owe you for that.” The agent fell silent for a minute, waiting for the usually more energetic woman to reply something, but as she still wasn’t so much as looking at her, Haze ultimately went on, trying to reach her.

“Olivia, I know you said before that you regret helping us, but no matter what you might be thinking right now, your cooperation with SHIELD does not make you responsible for your brother’s death. Curtis made his own decisions, every step of the way, and you can’t blame yourself for that.”

“I know,” Olivia finally replied, her voice barely audible. She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep shuddering breath, before looking straight at Agent Haze, her expression completely calm and collected, not betraying what was going on inside of her any longer.

“I want to get out of here, so what else do you want to know? Curtis is already dead, so I’m not sure what I can even tell you that would be of any value to SHIELD. He never really told me anything about his jobs.”

“We’ll see,” Haze replied, getting up from her seat again and taking the handcuffs that had been lying on the table so far. “I’ll radio Agent Coulson and let him know we’re here and then I’ll get us both a cup of coffee before we get started. I think I still owe you one, right?“ she asked with a small smile, as she stepped next to Olivia and chained her right hand to the table, making sure that the forger couldn’t get away as long as she was gone from the room.

When the agent had left, the red headed young woman kept looking after her through the large window next to the door, which was leading into the main hall of the hangar, her expression thoughtful and her brows becoming increasingly furrowed, the longer she stared through the open blinds, even after the blond woman was gone from her view.

It were only a few minutes until Agent Haze entered the office again and closed the door behind her, before approaching the table Olivia was still sitting at, putting a cup of coffee down in front of her and two more at the other end of the table.

Before she could sit down again, though, or had the opportunity to uncuff the forger, the latter suddenly spoke up, her voice a lot more collected than before.

“Could you close the blinds?”, the red headed woman asked, glancing over at the window and out into the hangar. “I know that everyone out there is probably busy, but I still feel like I’m being watched all the time.”

After looking outside for a moment herself, without actually having the impression that anyone was taking much note of them in the first place, Agent Haze finally shrugged, not really caring one way or the other.

“Sure,” she replied, as she walked over to comply with Olivia’s wish, not thinking much of it. However, as the forger continued, she suddenly froze, not liking the implications of what the other woman was saying.

“In the hospital I hated it that the blinds to Curtis’ room were open all the time, but with all the security there it didn’t really come as a surprise. But when he died – and I didn’t notice that at first, because obviously I was kind of distracted – when he died, the blinds at the window were closed. Why were they closed?”, Tyler’s sister wondered, her voice dangerously tense.

As she had still been facing the window so far, Agent Haze now slowly turned around to look back at Olivia, but before she had the time to process the fact that the forger was standing right in front of her, obviously somehow having managed to free herself from the handcuffs, she already found herself being hit with a chair, her head spinning and throbbing in pain as she crashed to the floor.

The agent groaned in pain and closed her eyes tightly for a second, as dark spots seemed to be dancing in front of her, but as she looked up again, Olivia was suddenly sitting right on top of her, her expression completely mad and a pair of scissors in her hand that she was clearly about to bring down on the computer expert’s throat any second.

“I was such an idiot, I thought you wanted to help me, but you’re the one who killed him! But you’re not going to get away with it, ‘cause now I’ll be the one who kills _you_!”

**To be continued…**


	34. Damaged

_“I was such an idiot, I thought you wanted to help me, but you’re the one who killed him! But you’re not going to get away with it, ‘cause now I’ll be the one who kills_ you _!”_

As Agent Haze saw Olivia’s hand, still clutching the sharp pair of scissors tightly, coming down towards her, her survival instincts kicked in, despite her still slightly woozy state, and her right hand shot up and wrapped around the forger’s wrist in a desperate attempt to save herself. But as Olivia’s attack was fuelled by all her sorrow, anger and desperation, it was too strong for the agent to block completely and she only barely managed to divert the blow to the side, cringing as the tip of the scissors ripped through the skin on the side of her neck painfully.

There was no time to worry about the severity of her injury, however, as the red headed woman on top of her cried out in anger and pulled her arm back, determined to attack again. This attempt was cut short by the death grip Agent Haze still had on Olivia’s wrist, desperate to keep the sharp office tool Tyler’s sister was wielding as far away from herself as possible. With adrenaline pumping through her veins, she tried to free herself from her trapped position on the ground, and pulled her opponent’s arm to the side forcefully, successfully managing to unbalance her in the process.

Seizing the opportunity, Haze pushed herself up vigorously, but when her head started spinning again, as soon as she began to move, she knew that getting back to her feet wasn’t an option right now. Instead she settled for throwing the red headed woman off of her and lunging at her in turn in an attempt to pin her to the ground this time. She slammed Olivia’s hand, which was still holding the pair of scissors, to the floor hard, trying to get the young woman to drop them.

When she finally did, the agent grabbed them instinctively and held them tightly, ready to strike at the young woman she was holding to the ground in a heartbeat. It took the forger a moment to realise she was beaten, but when she ultimately did, she quickly calmed down again, although her anger was still as fierce as before.

“What now, huh? Are you going to finish me off, too?” she asked through clenched teeth, fixating the blond woman above her with a defiant glare and causing her to snap out of her attack mode as well.

Haze looked appalledat the weapon in her hand for a brief second, wondering how far she had actually been planning to go just now, before she tossed it away to the other side of the room, far out of range for both of them.

She was still holding Olivia down, both of them panting heavily from their struggle, but the agent knew that this confrontation wasn’t over yet. In fact, Haze suddenly realised, right now there was only one way in which all of this could end, and that was with Olivia in handcuffs on her way to the Fridge, because she would never stop trying to avenge her brother’s death. Not unless she somehow managed to convince her that there was nothing _to_ avenge.

Just one thing was sure, and that was that she could never find out the truth. Nobody could.

“No, I don’t want to ‘finish you off’, and although I know that you don’t want to believe me, I didn’t finish off your brother either,” Haze began, only for Olivia to answer her furiously.

“You can stop lying, alright, I know you did it. You or one of those other agents killed Curtis for what he did to that girl, but honestly, I think it was you. You said you would come back with coffee, but you never did. You were waiting for me to fall asleep, and then you snuck into the room and closed the blinds, so nobody would see what you were doing, and then you killed him," she almost shouted as she finished her explanation.

Olivia swallowed noticeably before she continued, but when she did, her voice was soaked with pure hatred.

"I know, in your eyes he probably deserved it, but he was unconscious and in a hospital bed, damn it! What kind of person kills someone like that?” she asked, angry tears running down her cheeks as she stared up at the agent.

Haze swallowed hard and took a deep breath, clearly affected by Olivia's words, but when she finally replied, her voice was surprisingly steady, not betraying her rattled state.

“I _didn’t_ kill your brother. When I left you in his room, I told you I would be a while, and when I came back, you were already sleeping, so I gave your coffee to the agent standing guard instead. You were right about the blinds, though, and that I was inside the room while you were asleep,” she admitted, knowing that that was one detail she had messed up and that there was no use in denying it if she ever wanted Tyler's sister to trust her again.

“But I only came in for a few seconds to close them, that was it. In fact, I did it, because I thought we had an understanding, that you would cooperate and wouldn’t pose a threat any longer, so I decided to give you some privacy,” Haze explained with a slight trace of anger in her voice, knowing full well that it was a low move to act as if she was the wronged party here.

Olivia wasn’t willing to buy her explanation, however, not if doing so would leave her without anyone to direct her anger and frustration at.

“No, you’re lying!“ she protested vigorously, only for Agent Haze to shake her head calmly.

“No, I’m not. I swear to you, I didn’t kill your brother. Believe me, I am so sorry for what you’re going through right now, because I know what you’re feeling and-”

“Sure you do,” Olivia interrupted her harshly, her words dripping with sarcasm.

“I do, alright?” Agent Haze shot back at her, her hold on Olivia tightening as she was becoming increasingly choked up, her guilty conscience for the younger woman’s situation making it impossible for her to remain professional and leave her personal history out of this.

“You asked me before if I had any siblings, and I told you I had two sisters, but that was a lie. Actually, I have three sisters, only that one of them is dead.”

She shook her head briefly, angry and frustrated at herself for her emotional outburst, but as she noticed the at least slightly sympathetic expression on Olivia’s face, she sighed and let go of the forger, realising that maybe this was really the best way to convince her, by showing her compassion and empathy.

“Her name was Alaina,” Haze began to explain with a fond, but sad expression, while moving away from the red headed woman and sitting on the ground next to her, “and she was the liveliest and most outgoing person you can imagine. Sure, she could be damn annoying, too, but I loved her like crazy and when she died, I was lost and angry and I had no idea how to go on with my life. There was just this… emptiness inside of me where my little sister used to be and it took me a long time to figure out a way to move on from that, but eventually I did.”

At this point, Agent Haze looked directly at the woman beside her, who had sat up by now as well, making sure that she was listening to her next words.

“Olivia, your brother might be gone, but you’re not. I know it’s easier to keep focusing your anger at someone instead of dealing with the pain underneath it, but if you keep this up, you’re just going to destroy the life you still have, and you would destroy it for nothing. I didn’t kill Curtis. He was severely injured, and just because the doctors were optimistic, doesn’t mean his condition didn’t simply take a turn for the worse. Please, you have to believe me,” she pleaded insistently, and going by the unsure expression on Olivia’s face, the forger clearly wasn’t so sure anymore about what had happened to her brother.

“You really didn’t…”, she ultimately began to ask, her voice trailing off before she could finish the question.

“No, I didn’t,” Agent Haze repeated once again, and this time Tyler’s sister was obviously believing her, as she nodded silently.

“Then I’m sorry about that,” Olivia admitted, indicating the cut at Haze’s neck, “and for hitting you with the chair.”

“I’ll live,” the agent replied with a weak grin, simply relieved that she had been able to convince the forger of her innocence, not trying to think about how messed up this entire situation was. As she stood up slowly, she couldn’t help but feel dizzy for a moment, although thankfully that went away again quickly, allowing her to focus on the younger woman again. She signalled her to sit back down at the table and despite the fact that they had cleared the air between them, Agent Haze picked up the handcuffs again and chained up the forger once more, not taking any chances.

“How did you even manage to get out of these?” she asked curiously, only for Olivia to indicate a small piece of metal that was now lying on the floor next to her.

“Paperclip I took from the hospital. I didn’t even plan to try anything back then, but I thought better safe than sorry, right?” she asked with a half-hearted smile, obviously still feeling guilty about attacking the agent.

“Right,” Haze agreed sarcastically, cringing slightly as she finally reached for the wound on her neck and her hand was quickly covered in blood. It was more than apparent that the injury wasn’t very serious and the blood loss was nowhere near fatal, but it still hurt and she knew that she would have to get stitches for it. For now, however, she just went over to the main desk in the office and rummaged through it until she had found a pack of tissues, pressing a couple of them against her torn skin to stop the bleeding while she waited for Agent Coulson to turn up to finish Olivia’s interrogation.

 

* * *

 

Skye had left Coulson’s office a while ago, and now she was back in her bunk, lying on her bed, not really knowing what to do with herself. Their conversation was still going through her mind, but from all the things they had talked about, including her painful confession of betraying the team, and learning that Centipede had really been the driving force behind her abduction, the one thing she couldn’t seem to get her head around, was the idea that Jack was dead.

Even though Skye had already known that she would never have to face him again, as he would have been sent to the Fridge probably for the rest of his life, it was still something else to be sure that he was really gone. Or at least it should have been.

However, the truth was that even though she could now be absolutely certain that Jack would never be able to hurt her again, the hacker wasn’t feeling any better or safer for that matter.

It hadn’t made that cold feeling go away that had been keeping a hold on her since her imprisonment, or more specifically ever since Jack had managed to break her resistance entirely by first letting her believe that she had escaped from him only to then prove to her that she had just been fooling herself. That moment, when she had realised that no matter how much she fought back, or how clever she thought she was, she was still at his mercy and there was nothing left for her to hold onto, had probably destroyed her more thoroughly than any physical torture ever could have.

Now Skye knew of course that her kidnapper had been wrong, and that she had been an idiot for believing him, for losing all hope the way she had and especially for losing her faith in her friends. However, despite all that and the fact that Jack was dead now, she couldn’t shake the feeling that after everything he had done to her and what he had put her through, something inside of her was still broken, that she was somehow damaged, maybe even beyond repair.

Skye ran her hands across her face wearily, stifling a small sob and wiping the tears that had gathered in her eyes away angrily. She didn’t want to feel like this anymore. She was done with crying, done with feeling like a helpless victim, and a big part of her just wanted to pretend like the last few days had never happened.

She wanted to go back to training with Ward, without having to wait for Simmons clearing her first, she wanted to be able to move around the Bus without Agent May shadowing her, she wanted to just go to bed in her own bunk at night without having to turn on the lights and feeling like the walls of the tight space were closing in on her, and most of all, she wanted to talk to her friends without them looking at her like she was going to fall apart at any moment.

Skye knew that they were all just trying to be there for her and to help her, and that they had more than enough reason to be worried about her, especially in light of her panic attack after being rescued, but to the young woman it just meant that what she was thinking about her own condition, that she was still broken after her imprisonment, they were seeing it, too.

At this point Skye exhaled sharply and turned on her side, pulling her blanket around herself and trying to push all those thoughts away for now, to get some more rest after she had only had a couple of hours of sleep last night. Agent May had left the Bus together with Coulson to finish some final interrogations at the nearby hangar, meaning that no one was going to bother her for a while, and despite the fact that her bunk still seemed far too small for comfort, the sun had at least come up by now, allowing Skye to feel a lot more at ease than last night, when falling asleep in here had seemed pretty much impossible.

Even though the young woman’s mind wouldn’t slow down, her body was actually still so exhausted from her ordeal and her short night, that she somehow managed to drift off to sleep after a while, only that this time she wasn’t able to find any rest. Instead, the memories she had been trying so hard to subdue, and which had been kept at bay the last times she had slept by the drugs Simmons had given her, and later by Ward’s presence, finally caught up with her, pulling Skye into a vivid and tormenting nightmare.

She was alone in the dark again, completely restrained so she couldn’t move, while the only sound around her were the heavy footsteps of a man slowly circling her.

 _“Do you want to die, Skye?”,_ Jack’s all too familiar voice suddenly asked, causing the young hacker to shake her head decisively, desperate to get out of this situation alive.

 _“No. No, I don't want to die,”_ she replied with a constricted voice, causing her kidnapper to crouch down in front of her, his tone even more imploring than before.

 _“Good, then we'll be a team from now on, you and I, and you’ll tell me everything I need to know, understood? You’ll be alright, just as long as you give them all up.”_ At this point Skye’s brow furrowed in confusion, and she shook her head almost frantically, realising too late what she was doing.

 _“No, I’m not going to give up anyone! I won’t and whatever you do, you can’t make me!“_ she shouted desperately, only for Jack to chuckle at her outburst and grab her chin forcefully, turning her head so she was looking to the side, where the room was inexplicably bright enough for her to see perfectly.

 _“But Skye, you already_ have _given them up. All of them!”_

A part of her wanted to scream, but the sound died in her throat the second Skye recognised Miles’ body lying in a puddle of blood close to her chair. His hand had been cut off, which had apparently caused him to bleed to death, as nobody had bothered to help him.

His body wasn’t the only one she could see now, however, as her own team was lying dead on the ground as well. The next thing she knew, Skye suddenly wasn’t tied down anymore, but was standing right in front of them, holding a gun in her hand, Jack at her side.

 _“I told you that we are a team now, you and I. You sold them all out to save yourself, Skye, you’re the one responsible for this and now I want you to finish it.”_ Before the hacker could even ask what he meant by this, let alone really understand what was happening, she realised that there was one body missing from the scene in front of her.

Aside from Miles’ mutilated corpse, there were Coulson and May, both with a gunshot wound to the head, and Fitz and Simmons, who looked like they had been tortured extensively before being shot as well, but there was no trace of Ward anywhere.

 _“Skye,”_ she suddenly heard the specialist’s voice coming from behind her, and before she knew what she was doing, the hacker quickly spun around and aimed the gun in her hand at his face, her fingers trembling slightly.

 _“Skye, how could you do this to us?”_ the agent asked angrily, glaring at her reproachfully. _“We trusted you,_ I _trusted you!”_

 _“I didn’t-”_ , the hacker began weakly, a few tears running down her cheeks by now, but Jack interrupted her immediately, laying his hand on hers, helping her to hold the gun steady.

 _“Of course you did, and you would do it all over again just to save your pathetic, miserable excuse for a life. You agreed to this, remember, we_ _’re_ _a team, you and I. You worked for Talos, you even helped Centipede and you have no idea about the damage you’ve caused. And now it’s time that you finish this!“_ Jack instructed her once more, and even though Skye desperately tried to move, to turn the gun away from Ward, she realised with horror that she couldn’t.

 _“Get out of the way, Ward,”_ she shouted in fear, but the specialist wasn’t moving, either, and there was nothing she could do as Jack tightened his grip on her hand, forcing her to pull the trigger.

“NO!”, Skye shouted, sitting upright in her bed with a start, panting, cold sweat covering her skin. She was still half caught in her dream, barely realising what was going on around her, until a strong pair of hands suddenly grabbed her shoulders, guiding her back to reality.

“Skye! Skye, please calm down and talk to me, alright?” a familiar voice urged her gently, and when the young woman finally seemed to become aware of her surroundings again, she noticed that she wasn’t alone in her bunk anymore. Ward was sitting on her bed next to her, staring at her with shock and worry in his eyes.

“Ward…”, the hacker muttered hesitantly, still trying to get her bearings again and to reconcile the images she had just seen and that were still so vivid in her mind with what was happening right in front of her now. “You… you’re alright.”

“Of course I’m alright, Skye. You were having a nightmare, that’s all. I heard you shouting, so I came in here.” The agent fell silent for a moment as he was looking at Skye more closely, taking in her dishevelled appearance and fighting the urge to tuck a strand of her hair that was falling into her face back behind her ear. He knew that any act of intimacy, no matter how innocent it might seem, would be a bad idea right now, considering Skye’s vulnerable condition.

“Just…” he continued, only to hesitate for a moment, before finally finishing the sentence. “Just don’t scare me like that again, okay?”

The young woman actually laughed briefly at this, the idea that Ward had been the scared one of them just too ridiculous. As she nodded in agreement, however, the first tears started to fall from her eyes again, finally prompting the specialist to pull her into his arms, knowing that in spite of his resolve, Skye really needed someone to be there for her right now. He simply kept telling himself that this was nothing more than a hug between friends, even if it didn’t feel like one.

As Skye finally pulled away from him again about a minute or two later, she had calmed down considerably and was wiping away the last remaining tears, a small smile on her lips.

“You know, after Jack took me, I was afraid I would never see you again,” she began, only to add, “you and the rest of the team, obviously,” causing Ward’s heart to drop a little, even though he knew how ridiculous this was. As she continued, however, each of her words was just making him feel worse, painfully reminding him of his mistakes and his guilt he still hadn’t admitted to her.

“Before we went out on that mission to make contact with Dr. O’Leary, I was so glad that we were okay again, that I could make it up to you and the others that I lied to you about Miles, but when Jack made me believe that you all thought I had betrayed you again, I was afraid that if he just killed me, you would never find out the truth. That you would spend the rest of your life hating me, thinking I was a traitor. Ward, you have no idea how horrifying that thought was, and I just wanted to get out of there alive to tell you what really happened, but I’m glad that I didn’t even have to. Coulson told me what happened earlier-”, Skye explained, only for Ward to cut her off instantly.

“What exactly did he tell you?” he asked, needing to hear what the young woman already knew, before telling her anything himself, even though he was sure that Coulson had honoured his promise and hadn’t gone into detail about the specialist’s reaction after his rookie’s disappearance. Otherwise she certainly wouldn’t be acting this gratefully towards him anymore.

“That Jack had managed to buy himself some time with that setup with O’Leary and the note he had left behind to make you think I wanted to abandon you,” Skye began to explain, convincing Ward more and more with each second that he had to tell her the truth. “That he managed to hide the fact that he had kidnapped me just long enough to convince me I was on my own and that nobody would come to help me, so that he could manipulate me better. But none of that matters anymore, Ward, because you came, alright, you were the one, who rescued me.”

“But it _does_ matter,” the specialist finally replied, moving away from Skye so that he was sitting on the far side of the bed, away from her.

Obviously perplexed by his behaviour, the hacker shook her head slightly and looked at Ward with a furrowed brow.

“Look, I know that you didn’t focus on searching for me immediately, alright? Coulson told me. But that’s okay, because I know how good Jack was at manipulating people. You weren’t sure what had happened to me and you still had to find Dr. O’Leary, because he was your lead to Centipede, so I wasn’t your priority at first, I understand that. We all fell for a bunch of lies and that _sucks_ , but you don’t have to keep beating yourself up over it, Ward,” Skye pointed out, actually surprising herself by how well she had handled the revelation that her kidnapper had at least in part been telling her the truth about her team’s mistrust against her.

“Coulson also told me why he had Agent Haze help you out while I was gone, that she was the one, who had been monitoring me while I had been wearing that stupid bracelet. I’m still not really sure how I feel about her now, but just the fact that he actually asked her to come, shows that you were already trying to find me. I know you all probably had your doubts about me, but you didn’t give up on me, and that’s what I’ll always remember.”

There was a small smile on Skye’s lips as she finished her little speech to Ward, but as she kept looking at him, waiting for him to say something in return, there was something about his expression that made her smile vanish, leaving her with apprehension.

“What? What is it?” she finally asked, as her S.O. still hadn’t replied anything and just kept looking at her with sad and guilty eyes until he ultimately averted his gaze to the ground, unable to face her any longer.

“Ward, please say something, you’re scaring me,” the young woman admitted, her eyes trying to reach his, but to no avail. Even when the specialist finally began to talk again, he was still avoiding to look at her.

“You’re right, nobody gave up on you, Skye. Fitz knew that the note Tyler had left was a lie from the moment he set foot in that hotel room. He knew that you wouldn’t abandon the team, especially not without an explanation, but as he had nothing but the feeling in his gut to prove it, we didn’t listen to him right away. Coulson, May and Simmons, I guess they all had their doubts, like you said, but they still wanted to find you, to make sure you were alright, and even if you had left on your own, to find out why.” At this point he hesitated for another brief moment, taking a shaking breath before continuing.

“You see, nobody gave up on you. Nobody except me.”

**To be continued…**


	35. The Sad Truth

_“You see, nobody gave up on you. Nobody except me.”_

A heavy silence followed Ward’s confession, which stretched on for several moments while he waited for Skye’s reaction, the young woman staring back at him, her mouth slightly agape.

“You… you gave up on me? What the hell is that supposed to mean?” she finally asked, her eyes searching Ward’s for any indication that she might have misunderstood him. When he finally replied, however, she had to realise that the truth was even more horrible than she could have imagined.

“It means that I was angry and stupid and that if it had been my call, we wouldn’t have spent even a minute looking for you,” Ward admitted truthfully, his regret and shame over his actions all too visible on his features. “You had been kidnapped and were being tortured and all I could think about was that I had been an idiot for ever trusting you again.”

Skye’s complexion had become ashen at Ward’s explanation and when the specialist suddenly reached out to take one of her hands in his, she pulled it away quickly, making him flinch almost unnoticeably at the rejection. Her reaction didn’t come as a surprise to him, however, and so he hurried to continue, a deep frown creasing his forehead.

“Skye, I know this isn’t something I can make up for any time soon, but for whatever it’s worth, I’m sorry. I’ve made a mistake, one of the biggest of my life, and I know I should have told you sooner, but-”

“Yes, you should have!” the young hacker replied harshly, cutting her S.O. short. “Preferably before I cried my heart out in front of you. Ward, you… you actually let me apologise for doubting you; you let _me_ feel bad about misjudging _you;_ how could you do that to me?”

This time it was Ward, whose mouth was slightly agape, as he didn’t know what to reply to this. He had been trying not to hurt Skye by not telling her the truth earlier, and the sudden realisation that he had only been making things even worse for her hit him like a punch in the gut now. Hurting Skye was the last thing he ever wanted to do, but as of late he constantly seemed to end up doing just that anyway.

“No, Skye, that’s not what I…” The specialist was struggling for words, trying to explain his reasoning behind not admitting the truth earlier, but the more he kept thinking about it, the less sense his decision from last night was making now in the light of day. “I thought it would only make everything even more painful for you, if I told you how much I had doubted you. I was… I was trying to protect you, Skye, please believe me,” Ward implored her, but as he reached out for the young woman’s hand once again, she all but jumped up from the bed, just to get out of his reach. When she replied, her voice was cold, her anger having erased every trace of familiarity between them.

“No, you were just trying to protect yourself. I guess you didn’t want me to stop looking up to you, right? Seriously, Ward, I’m the one who was kidnapped and tortured for days, but I’m starting to think that from the two of us, you’re the one with the real issues here. Just… just stay away from me, alright?”

With that, Skye stormed out of her bunk, heading to the back of the Bus, as far away from her S.O. as she could possibly get.

Ward got up as well now and followed his rookie out into the common area, but then he finally stopped himself and let her leave, trying not to let the tight feeling in his chest get the better of him.

Skye was angry and hurt and he knew that she had every right to be. After all, all of this was his fault and while he wanted nothing more than to find a way to make it up to the young hacker, the least he could do for now was to respect her wish and give her some space until she was ready to hear him out again.

At least Ward hoped that she would eventually be willing to listen to his apology, because the thought of losing his rookie all over again was already killing him.

 

* * *

 

_“If it had been my call, we wouldn’t have spent even a minute looking for you.”_

Ward’s voice echoed in her mind as Skye made her way into the cargo hold of the Bus, the world spinning around her. She felt completely empty inside and while she also had the sudden urge to just stop dead in her tracks and start screaming, she somehow feared that there would be no sound escaping her lips, even if she tried.

Before she knew it, Skye had made her way down the spiral staircase, and, following her instincts, headed down the open ramp only a few seconds later. She didn't leave, however, she just stood there, her feet still standing firmly on the inclined metal underneath her, as she looked around at the wide open area in front of her.

Skye took a deep breath, trying to calm the turmoil of emotions inside of her. She had wanted – _needed –_ to get away from Ward, but it wasn’t as if she really wanted to go anywhere. This plane, no matter how crazy life on it could be sometimes, was the only place in the world where she knew she could feel safe right now. It was her home and she didn’t want to be anywhere else, even if right now she would have rather preferred it if Ward wouldn't be here as well. She didn’t even know how she was ever going to look at him again…

Skye closed her eyes tightly for a moment and wrapped her arms around herself as she tried to come to terms with what her S.O. had told her just moments ago. To hear that almost everyone on the team had had their doubts about her after Jack’s deception had been hard enough, even though not really surprising, but so far the fact that that hadn’t stopped them from coming to her rescue had been enough for the young woman to not lose her faith in her team mates.

To learn now that Ward of all people had completely given up on her, though, was hitting her far harder than Skye would have thought possible. She had been so relieved to see him back in her cell, and not just because it had meant the end of her imprisonment, but also because him being there had seemed to prove that all her worries regarding her team had been unjustified. Now that she knew the truth, however, her worst fears seemed to have come true. Jack had been right after all…

“Skye?”

The young woman in question was visibly startled at the sound of her own name and turned around to see Fitz standing in front of the door to the lab, looking at her rather perplexed. As he noticed the upset look on her face, he set down the crate of equipment he had been carrying and took a step in her direction.

“Skye, are you alright?” he asked carefully and the hacker had to stop herself from rolling her eyes, as she was already starting to get annoyed by the question. She knew and appreciated that the engineer and the rest of her team were honestly concerned about her, but a part of her was determined to deal with everything she had gone through – and was _still_ going through – on her own.

“Yes, don’t worry, Fitz, it’s nothing,” she replied in the most nonchalant tone of voice she could muster at the moment, but the young man didn't seem very convinced. He continued to study Skye with a clearly worried expression, but in the end he just shook his head slightly, before he headed back to his equipment and picked it up again.

“I don’t think that’s true, Skye, but if you don’t want to talk, that’s okay. I imagine it must be exhausting to have all of us hovering around you all the time, constantly wanting an update on how you’re doing, but if you ever _do_ want to talk, about anything, I’m here.”

The heartfelt offer obviously took Skye by surprise, but before she could reply anything, Fitz continued, his slightly more awkward side coming to the surface now.

“Obviously I'm aware that if you actually do have something you want to tell someone, I probably won’t be the first person you’ll go to. You'd rather have a heart-to-heart with Jemma or with Coulson before I hear about any news; _if_ I hear about it, that is, and-”

“It’s Ward,” Skye suddenly interrupted Fitz's rambling, causing him to focus back on her instead. The engineer looked at the young hacker in silence for a moment as she walked further back into the cargo hold, before he replied hesitantly.

“Really? What… eh… what did he do now?” He obviously had a rather good idea about what the specialist might have done to upset Skye like this, but just in case he was mistaken, he didn’t want to be the one to blab.

Skye brushed her hair back out of her face and sighed briefly as she replied, but no matter how much she was trying to appear unfazed, it was more than obvious that she was still extremely shaken up by Ward’s confession.

“He told me that that stupid message Jack had left for you guys – _so long_ – that it actually worked on him. That he gave up on me after I disappeared from the mission and that he didn’t even want to spend any time searching for me.”

“Oh,” Fitz merely replied, unsure what to say in this situation. Skye didn’t wait for him to say anything else, though, as she went on, her voice taking on a slightly accusing tone.

“You knew, didn’t you? Well, of course you did, you all did, ‘cause I bet Ward was extremely vocal about wanting to leave me behind. About leaving me in that room, tied up– ”

“Skye, he didn’t know about that,” Fitz suddenly came to the specialist’s defence, startling both himself and the young woman in front of him. Before she could reply anything, though, he quickly continued, a sad look on his face.

“Ward was a real idiot when you went missing, Skye, stubborn as ever, but believe me, he regrets it, more than you know.”

The hacker let out a small huff at this point, a lopsided grin on her face.

“You know, Fitz, I didn’t think I’d ever hear you defending Ward,” she remarked almost light-heartedly, prompting the engineer to respond in kind.

“Well, for the record, I did already tell him off for his lack of trust in you, so I’m definitely not defending his attitude, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

This reply caught Skye noticeably off guard and she stared at Fitz with raised eyebrows.

“Really? Like you guys got into a real argument or something? You actually did that for me?”

“Of course, I did,” Fitz replied matter-of-factly. “The way Ward was acting…” he continued, but quickly caught himself as he realised that it probably wasn’t the best idea after all to tell Skye the details of her S.O.’s behaviour following her abduction. “I actually called him a coward,” the scientist pointed out instead in an almost proud tone, prompting a small chuckle to escape from Skye’s lips as she stepped further towards him.

“Wow. And he didn’t hit you for saying that?” she wondered, tilting her head ever so slightly as she studied the young man in front of her.

“Well, Simmons interrupted us before he really had the chance, so maybe I was just being lucky,” Fitz admitted with a small smile of his own. As he continued, however, his expression darkened again noticeably.

“Actually that was right before we all learned the truth about what had really happened to you, Skye. About Curtis Tyler and what you were most likely going through, and since then Ward has done nothing but focus on saving you, trying to make up for his behaviour. So, maybe… you shouldn’t write him off completely just yet, alright?”

Skye shuddered involuntarily at the mention of her kidnapper’s real name, as the memories of her imprisonment threatened to force their way back into her mind, but managed to mask her reaction by grimacing slightly and shaking her head dejectedly.

“I don’t know, Fitz, it’s just… all too much right now, you know? I mean, why couldn’t he be honest with me sooner? Why did he let me…,” but the young woman trailed off with a sigh before she could finish the sentence, not wanting to relive the entire argument she had had with her S.O. only minutes ago.

“Honestly, I’m not sure how I’m going to deal with Ward after this, I guess I’ll just have to figure it out eventually,” Skye summarised her conflicted feelings while letting her gaze wander across the cargo hold, searching for an excuse to change the rather painful topic.

In the end she did find something to focus her attention on, when she noticed what was happening inside the lab, where she could see the agents Simmons, May and Haze gathered around the holo table, with the latter sitting on top of it.

“What’s going on in there?” she asked, glancing back at Fitz briefly before turning back towards the door to the lab.

The engineer followed her line of sight, the slightest of frowns appearing on his forehead as he watched the three women.

“Did Coulson tell you about the lead we had on Tyler, how we eventually found you?” he wondered, much to Skye’s confusion. She did answer the question, however.

“Yes, Coulson said that you interrogated Jack’s sister, who’s been supplying him with forged documents,” she replied, unconsciously using her kidnapper’s fake name once again. “Apparently he had told her just enough about his current location so that once she started cooperating, you guys managed to figure out where Talos was hiding me.”

Despite her quick reply, the young woman was obviously unsure how any of this was explaining the scene in front of her, but Fitz quickly went on to shed some more light on the situation.

“Well, apparently Olivia didn’t take her brother’s death all that well and she tried to kill Agent Haze with a pair of scissors.”

“ _What_?” Skye asked in genuine surprise and when she looked back at the blond agent in question, she now realised that the reason for her sitting on the holo table in the first place was that Simmons was currently treating an injury at the side of her neck. The fact that Agent May was standing next to the scientist and the computer expert, however, already had Skye come up with her own version of how the situation had been resolved.

“And what did May do? She took her out, right? Maybe broke a few bones or something?” She knew that she didn’t really have a reason to hope for the forger having been hurt like that, as she hadn’t even met the woman so far, but just the fact that Olivia had been helping her brother for years, despite obviously knowing how he was earning his money, was more than enough for Skye to see her as an enemy. Which was exactly why Fitz’s next reply caught her so utterly off guard.

“No, Agent May wasn’t there at the time, but apparently Agent Haze managed to talk Olivia down and now she’s even asked Coulson to let her go despite everything,” the engineer explained as he turned away from Skye and headed into the lab, leaving the young woman with a look of confusion on her face.

“You’re kidding me, right?” she asked as she followed Fitz, then repeated the question again once she realised she had gotten the attention of the three agents already in the lab. “He’s kidding, right? Fitz just told me that Jack’s.., I mean Tyler’s sister tried to kill you and you still want Coulson to let her go? Are you crazy?”

“That’s what I’ve been saying,” May agreed with a small nod, looking from Skye back to the woman sitting in front of her. “You said she also hit you with a chair, right, so maybe you’re just not thinking straight right now.

Agent Haze made an annoyed face at the dark haired agent, but it was Simmons who replied in her stead before she had the chance to say anything.

“Actually, despite the blow to her head, I haven’t found any indication that Rebecca suffered a concussion or any significant injury from the attack.”

“Yeah, aside from the huge gash right next to her throat, obviously,” Skye pointed out as she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

“It’s just a cut, I’ll live,” Agent Haze replied, sounding somewhat tired, as if she had been having this discussion for a while now. “And believe me, I understand all of your objections, but Olivia is the one who wasn’t thinking clearly when she attacked me. Her brother had just died and I’ll admit that she didn’t handle it very well, but I’m not going to put her in prison for that.”

“Alright, fine,” Agent May answered in return, shrugging almost unnoticeably. “Coulson said he is going to leave the decision to you, so if you want to let her go, I’ll see to it that she gets released once he is done questioning her. I just hope you know what you’re doing,” she finished with a small shake of her head, before she turned around, ready to leave the lab.

Before she did, however, she turned to face Skye for a moment, her brow furrowing ever so slightly as she took a closer look at her. The young woman didn’t give her the chance to even open her mouth, though, as she already anticipated what May was going to say.

“I’m fine, don’t worry, I don’t need a babysitter right now. I thought I could maybe hang out here for a while, see what Fitz and Simmons have been up to without me.” She quickly looked over at both members of the team’s science duo, waiting for them to reply, as did obviously Agent May.

It was Agent Simmons who finally answered, an enthusiastic smile on her lips at the prospect of having her friend around.

“Yes, of course, we’d love for you to spend some time here, Skye.” And then, directed at Agent May, she continued. “You just go on back to Coulson, help him finish up whatever he still needs to take care of, so we can finally leave this dreadful place. I think we’re all going to be feeling much better when we finally get back in the air again.”

Agent May actually couldn’t help but smile slightly at this, as she obviously couldn’t agree more with Simmons’ assessment. She nodded briefly to the blond scientist and the others, before leaving the lab and heading back out of the plane.

As the agent was gone, Fitz, who was standing in front of one of the tables at the side of the room, looking at the crate he had been carrying earlier, gave Agent Haze an uncertain glance, which she returned for a moment, but without saying anything. Instead she remained quiet while Jemma continued to stitch up the cut on her neck, giving Skye the opportunity to pick a new topic for their conversation.

The young woman hesitated for a very long moment, but then she finally swallowed heavily and addressed the other computer expert directly.

“So, it’s really true; Jack is dead,” she stated, repeating what Coulson had told her in the morning, but somehow making it sound almost like a question.

Agent Haze looked back at her for a few seconds, studying her expression as if she wanted to know how this bit of information had affected Skye, but then she nodded ever so slightly, a grim look on her face.

“Yes, he’s gone for good. Curtis Tyler is dead and he is never going to torment you or anyone else ever again.”

Without realising, Skye had wrapped her arms around herself once more, and was nodding as well as she heaved a sigh of relief.

“Good, that’s good,” she agreed silently, as if she hadn’t really been convinced of her kidnapper’s death so far. After a few moments she looked back at Haze, however, one eyebrow raised slightly. “How exactly did he die?” she wondered, not even quite sure herself if she just wanted to know out of some morbid curiosity, or if she simply needed to hear some more details to finally be able to believe in Tyler’s death.

“Well,” Agent Haze began, just as Jemma had finished treating her injury, “he had still been in a coma after the beating he had received from Agent Ward, and while it had seemed at first as if he was going to recover, it turned out that his injuries were worse than anyone had thought, after all. Suddenly his heart just stopped beating and there was nothing the doctors could do. He never woke up again. His body has already been transported to a SHIELD facility to determine the exact cause of death, but for now that’s all I know,” she finished her report, obviously satisfying Skye.

The young woman did still have one question left, however, and despite her currently quite ambivalent feelings regarding her S.O., it was a rather pressing one.

“So what is this going to mean for Ward, is he in trouble now?”

Agent Haze got up from her seat at this point, and Skye almost had the impression that she was somehow uncomfortable at the question.

“Honestly, I don’t know, but I hope not. After what Tyler did to you, I don’t think that anyone at SHIELD is looking to crucify someone for his death. I can’t make any promises, obviously, but I’m sure that Agent Ward is going to be fine.”

This assertion actually prompted another relieved sigh from Skye, but despite her clear concern for her S.O., she kept telling herself that she simply didn’t need anything else to feel guilty about right now, and that anything that had happened during the team’s rescue mission for her could somehow be linked back to her.

In an attempt to finally shift the topic to a less unpleasant one, the young hacker took a curious look around the lab, her eyes ultimately landing on the crate Fitz had been hovering over for a while now.

“So, what are you guys up to down here? Any new projects I can help you with?” she asked eagerly, causing the engineer to look at Agent Haze once more, his expression clearly uneasy this time.

“Ehm, actually there is… eh…,” but he ultimately trailed off, not really knowing how to finish the sentence.

Both Skye and Agent Simmons were looking at him sceptically in response, but before either of them could say anything, Agent Haze came to his rescue.

“What Agent Fitz is trying to say, is that I promised to help him with a data recovery problem, but that we’ll probably be better off with just the two of us, as a small team makes it easier to concentrate.”

“Yes, exactly,” the engineer chimed in enthusiastically, “Jemma, why don’t you and Skye go upstairs and catch up for a bit. I’m sure there’s a lot you girls want to talk about in private.”

Skye just rolled her eyes at the suggestion, though, before she headed over to the scientist determinedly.

“Seriously, Fitz, don’t be ridiculous. You know as well as I do that I can help you with that, and it’s not like I’m suddenly too fragile to do any work. Actually, I think keeping myself busy is just what I need right now, so just tell me what you’re working on,” she ordered and reached into the box in front of the engineer, pulling out an internal hard drive that had obviously been damaged.

As Skye noticed the source of the damage, however – a bullet hole at the side of the case – she paused, realisation suddenly dawning on her features.

“This drive, this and the others,” she added as she realised a couple of identical ones still in the crate, “they’re from the factory, aren’t they?” she wanted to know, her voice rising steadily as she kept looking from Fitz to Haze and back again.

“Coulson told me that there was surveillance everywhere in that compound, even – or I guess _especially_ – in my cell. So what’s on these drives, huh, more footage of Jack torturing me? Or are these the parts where he’s already broken me, and I can’t seem to stop giving you all up one by one only to save myself? I mean, I just think I should know if you’re all going to learn the sad truth about me, right? _Right_?”

Skye’s outburst had effectively stunned the three agents in front of her into silence, their eyes filled with a look of pity that only made her desperation even worse, finally causing the hacker to lose her composure completely and hurl the hard drive in her hand against the opposite wall, where it broke apart, the pieces clattering to the floor in a messy heap.

Earlier she had thought that if she tried to scream, there would be no sound escaping her lips, but when she opened her mouth now to let out the pent up turmoil of emotions inside of her, she was proving herself wrong quite spectacularly, as her cry filled the lab, echoing through the walls of the Bus.

**To be continued…**


	36. A Riddle, Wrapped In A Mystery, Inside An Enigma

For a moment there was an awkward silence in the room following Skye’s outburst, while the young woman shut her eyes tightly and pressed the heels of her hands against them, desperately fighting for composure.

She hadn’t meant to lose control like that again, and the thought of her friends seeing her like this was now scaring her almost as much the idea of them watching the footage they had found in Talos’ hideout. At the same time, however, she could tell that a part of the tension from before had left her body, as she had finally gotten to vent some of the pent up emotions she was keeping locked up inside of her.

Fitz, who was standing right next to Skye, opened his mouth, wanting to say something calming and encouraging to her, but as he ultimately couldn’t think of anything, after all, he just glanced over at Simmons instead, obviously hoping that his lab partner would have a better idea on how to handle the situation.

Prompted by the engineer’s helpless expression, Agent Simmons finally took a tentative step towards the hacker, her voice soothing as she finally spoke.

“Skye, I can’t even pretend to know what you went through these past few days, but what I do know is that nobody on this team is blaming you for anything you did during your imprisonment. We all understand that you did what you had to do, and-”

“No, Jemma, you _don’t_ understand,” Skye suddenly interrupted her forcefully, letting her hands sink back to her sides. She was now looking at the scientist with a mixture of guilt and frustration clouding her features. “I didn’t _have_ to do anything. Yes, Jack was torturing me, but if _this_ ,” she gestured at the interior of the plane, “ _SHIELD_ , is what I want to be a part of, I should have been able to hold out. But I didn’t. I gave you up, Jemma, you and Fitz, _everyone_ on this team. I told Jack everything about you and if you guys hadn’t come to rescue me, who knows what else I would have done.”

Skye sighed in frustration and ran a hand over her face wearily as she turned away from the others, not wanting to face them as she continued, her voice heavy with emotions.

“Coulson, May, Ward, they would have died before giving Jack anything, but I… I couldn’t do it, not even as he offered.”

Behind Skye, Fitz and Simmons were exchanging a confused glance at this point, before the latter addressed the young hacker once again, a trace of concern colouring her voice.

“Skye, what do you mean, ‘as he offered’?” The scientist looked over at Agent Haze briefly, but the taller woman seemed just as puzzled as she was.

The team’s rookie had stepped over to one of the walls meanwhile and was now leaning with her back against it, but still avoided looking at the others as she began to explain, her voice almost failing her in the process. She didn’t want to talk about any of this, not really, especially not in the presence of a virtual stranger like Agent Haze, but at the same time she felt as if she was literally going to go insane if she kept this bottled up any longer.

“Jack, he… he said that if I wanted the pain and everything to stop I had the choice between cooperating with him or… dying – that he’d make it quick and painless – and, well, as I’m still standing here I think you can guess which option I picked. I chose to give up SHIELD and my own team instead of doing what a real agent would have done in the situation.” She let out a sad, humourless laugh at this point, shaking her head slightly. “You know, honestly, I think I don’t even have any right to be angry at Ward for being wrong about me. I mean, he was, but he just thought I had bailed on you, I’m sure he hadn’t expected me to sell you out the way I did.”

The young woman sighed once again, her shame and disappointment over her actions clearly showing. She knew that Jemma had been telling the truth, that none of her teammates were blaming her for what she had done under the torture, but that still didn’t stop her from blaming herself. Because no matter what anyone of them said, be it Simmons or Coulson, she just couldn’t let this go. She had been broken and made to betray the people who had become her family, that wasn’t something she could just forget or even forgive. Nor could she understand how the others possibly could.

It was Agent Haze’s voice which finally pulled Skye out of her depressing thoughts, causing her to look up and face the others once more after a few moments as she kept listening to the analyst’s heartfelt reply.

“Skye, is that what you think ‘real’ SHIELD agents are like? Infallible, always strong, no matter the odds? Because, believe me, as much as I wish you were right, you’re not. Agent Coulson has picked the best of the best for his team, and I understand that that’s who you’re looking up to, but every SHIELD agent, including the top specialists, has had their fair share of ‘weak’ moments during their career. The more training and experience you have, the easier it might be to handle those moments, but please don’t think that being a ‘real’ SHIELD agent means being unbreakable. It doesn’t.”

“Agent Haze is right, Skye,” Simmons now chimed in, looking at her friend with a consoling expression. “Why do you think SHIELD has different levels and puts such a high emphasis on compartmentalisation of information? It’s so that no single compromised agent can ever put everyone else in danger. You see, an agent revealing intel under torture is something SHIELD is prepared for, something that _happens_. It’s not-”

“If you’re actually going to say ‘it’s not a big deal’, I think I might have to throw something again,” Skye quipped in reply, cutting Jemma short, “but, yeah, okay, I guess I get what you’re saying. Both of you,” she added, looking over at Agent Haze as well, a grateful smile ghosting over her lips before she became serious again. “I mean, of course I’m glad I’m still alive, and I know that with Talos destroyed and Jack dead, none of the information I gave up is going to hurt anyone, after all, but…” She trailed off at this point, not really knowing what to say. Instead, the young woman sighed heavily once again and leaned her head back against the wall, closing her eyes for a moment.

She opened them again quickly, however, as Agent Haze spoke once more, her voice soft and compassionate.

“But it already hurt _you_. _He_ already hurt you, he got into your head and you can still feel it, even though you know you’re safe now.” The two women looked at each other in silence for a moment and to her surprise, Skye saw a level of understanding in the agent’s eyes she hadn’t found with any of the others so far. Somehow this woman knew of the impact Jack had had on her, but before Skye had the opportunity to ask her about it, Haze continued, answering her unasked question.

“I’ve crossed paths with Curtis Tyler before; well, not in person, but I’ve seen the result of his ‘work’ and the horrible things he can do to someone’s body and mind. I’ve spent a long time trying to catch him, Skye, and I’m really sorry that I didn’t, because then you wouldn’t have had to go through all of this.”

The young hacker obviously wanted to reply something to this, but Agent Haze didn’t give her the opportunity, as she quickly continued.

“Tyler was a monster and everything you did was so you could survive, even if it probably wasn’t in the way you think.” A puzzled look appeared on the younger woman’s face at this point, but once again she didn’t have the chance to say anything, as the agent already elaborated. “Because when Tyler told you he was going to kill you, I know he was lying. He never would have done that without first getting what he wanted, if even at all. He would have kept torturing and manipulating you until there would have been nothing left of you to keep fighting him. Believe me, I’ve seen it. But instead you saved yourself, Skye, and that isn’t a crime, so don’t keep punishing yourself for it.”

Skye didn’t know what to say. She just looked at Agent Haze quietly for a moment, her mind caught up in the scenario the blond woman had just laid out in front of her.

During her imprisonment, she had felt so hopeless and alone, at one point even completely broken, but now she suddenly came to the realisation that despite everything Jack had put her through, there had obviously still been enough of her left for her to start putting herself back together, no matter how difficult it might seem in some moments.

She was back on the Bus with her team, alive and still with most of her sanity left and that was a lot more than she could say about her captor. Of course Skye knew that she couldn’t just switch off the guilt she was feeling about her actions, about ever agreeing to Jack’s demands, but for the first time at least a part of her was willing to accept that maybe continuing to beat herself up over it wasn’t the answer to that, after all.

 

* * *

 

“So this is it, huh, I can go? You’re not going to put me in a cell and then throw away the key, after all?” Olivia asked as she glanced at the open door of the car next to her and the SHIELD agent standing beside it, who had just received orders to drive her to the next commercial airport, before she returned her attention back to Agent Coulson and Agent May.

They were all standing in front of the hangar where Agent Haze had brought her earlier, but now that she had passed her final questioning, Olivia’s time as SHIELD’s prisoner had come to an end, despite her attack on the blond woman and the repercussions Agent Coulson had threatened her with before.

When the red-headed woman focused back on said agent, his eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he replied to her.

“It’s true that I already agreed to let you go, but you might not want to push it,” he pointed out, his voice light-hearted, but the open threat still got Olivia to shut up for the moment, giving Agent May the opportunity to continue explaining to her what would happen next.

“You’re going to be escorted to the airport where you’ll get on the first flight back to Toronto. If it were my call, there would be a police unit waiting to pick you up once you land, but as you had a strong advocate, you’ll be free to go wherever you want from there.”

“It’s quite possible, however, that the local police will receive a tip about a forging business right under their nose about two hours after your plane landed, so you might not want to stick around for too long,” Coulson added, a small grin playing on his lips that earned him an angry glare from Olivia, who now found her voice once more.

“Great, so you people not only got my brother killed, but you’re sending me on the run, too?” she asked exasperatedly before continuing in a considerably darker tone. “You know, that grenade I used to blow up my computer when your agents took me? I think I should have thrown it at them instead,” she declared, giving May an angry glance.

“Maybe we should make it _one_ hour,” the female agent simply replied in return, addressing Coulson with her words, who nodded in agreement.

“Yes, I think you’re right.” His voice was still nonchalant, but the smile had vanished from his lips by this point thanks to Olivia’s outburst. The agent seemed to be more than fed up with the red-headed woman by now, so he finally addressed the man waiting next to the car, eager to end this conversation. “Get her out of here before I change my mind and have her shipped off to the Fridge, after all.”

“Yes, sir.”

For a moment it seemed as if Olivia wanted to reply something as well, but she ultimately remained silent as the agent quickly checked her handcuffs again and then ushered her into the back of the SHIELD vehicle, having nothing else to say to the people who had kept her prisoner.

As the car sped away, Coulson and May looked after it in silence for a moment, but in the end it was the latter, who spoke again first, her voice as professional as ever.

“The last of the prisoners we took from Talos are going to be transported soon along with our remaining support teams and the few interesting items we found at the factory have already been shipped off, so there’s really not much left for us to do here.”

“Agreed,” Coulson replied with a small nod. “I think Agent Haze will be gone before we take off as well,” he added, “once she’s done helping Fitz with the damaged hard drives. Did you find out anything interesting during your interrogation of the prisoners?” The agent wondered as he slowly began to walk back in the direction of the Bus, Agent May falling into step beside him.

“No,” she replied, a small trace of disappointment passing over her features, “or at least nothing we didn’t already know. According to his men, Green had a deep-seated hatred against anything alien, but even more than that, he hated SHIELD. To further his agenda he was trying to form an alliance with Centipede and one of his lieutenants confirmed that the operation against us was part of their ‘negotiations’.”

“A way to get us off their trail maybe?” Coulson mused, prompting a small nod from May.

“We can’t be sure, obviously, but it would make sense. Give us someone else to hunt down while Centipede can go about their plans without interruption.”

“Then they were probably counting on us taking more than just a couple of days to find Skye,” Agent Coulson pointed out. “They must be pretty disappointed now.”

He fell silent at this point, the possibility that Skye could have remained in her kidnapper’s hands even longer causing an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. May was obviously feeling it, too, as she also stayed quiet for a long moment.

When the agent spoke again a few minutes later, she glanced briefly at the man walking beside her, the concern in her eyes also clearly audible in her voice.

“What are you going to do about her now? Skye is going to need time to recover and I’m not sure if a pep talk from you will be enough to help her deal with what she’s been through.”

“I know,” Coulson agreed, a small smile ghosting over his lips as he glanced over at his colleague, “but it’s not just me who’s looking out for her now, is it? Everyone on the team is doing their best to help Skye and clearly that involves you as well, May.”

The female agent didn’t reply anything at first, her lips hardening ever so slightly as if she was keeping herself from voicing her thoughts out loud. Her silence gave Coulson the opportunity to continue, however, which he did with an almost teasing glint in his eyes.

“I’ve seen how you’ve taken care of Skye, so there’s really no point in pretending that you’re any less concerned about her than the rest of us.”

“Of course I’m not,” May replied quickly, the tone of her voice a lot more serious than Coulson would have expected. The reason for that soon became obvious to him, though, as the agent continued. “I do worry about Skye and the more she says she’s alright, the less I believe her, because we both know that I’ve been there.”

 _Bahrain_.

The thought came like an epiphany to Coulson and the agent was now mentally kicking himself for not making the connection earlier.

Meanwhile, May went on, her tone completely matter-of-factly.

“Of course it’s not the same what Skye and I experienced, but I recognise enough to know that she needs more help than you or I, or anyone on the team can give her.”

“I know,” Coulson replied once more, but this time he didn’t evade May’s concern, “and that is exactly the reason why our next destination is going to be Wakefield Institute.” He was obviously going to say more, but the female agent quickly interrupted him, her eyebrows raised noticeably as she looked over at him.

“SHIELD’s mental trauma centre? You know they’re not going to admit her, as she’s not an agent, right?”

This reply had Coulson raise his eyebrows in return as he stopped dead in his tracks to look at Agent May.

“What? No. Who said anything about having Skye admitted?” he asked, clearly bewildered. “I just want her to see one of the therapists there, maybe that’ll help. She can always continue her sessions online afterwards, but he wants to see her face to face first. Of course,” Coulson began to add as he continued walking, his back turned to May at this point, “if we want someone who makes house calls, I could always give Andrew a call.”

He didn’t even have to see the look on the female agent’s face to feel the daggers she was glaring at him right now.

 

* * *

 

He had promised himself he would give Skye the space she had asked for. Usually _not_ talking about something would have been the easiest thing in the world for him, but right now the fact that his rookie didn’t want to speak to him or even so much as see him was eating Ward up inside, making it impossible for him to even think straight.

The truth was that he had already almost broken his promise earlier, mere minutes after Skye had stormed out on him in the first place. He had seen her head downstairs to the cargo hold, and had been pretty sure that she had gone to see Fitz and Simmons in the lab, but when there had suddenly been a loud crashing noise followed by the sound of Skye’s voice screaming, any resolution he had made had quickly been forgotten, as Ward had rushed down towards the cargo hold as well, worry clouding his thoughts.

Once downstairs, however, the specialist had stopped dead in his tracks, as he had been able to see for himself that Skye had obviously been in no danger. She had been inside the lab with Fitzsimmons and Agent Haze, talking, and while she had clearly been upset, he had quickly realised that the last thing that would calm her down at that point would have been him barging in on her. So instead he had just stood there for a few moments, unnoticed by any of his teammates inside the lab, until he had finally forced himself to leave again, feeling utterly useless.

Now he was sitting alone in the lounge area of the Bus, trying to come up with a plan on what to do next.

He knew that Skye was still hurting badly, but instead of helping her like he wanted to, he had suddenly become a part of the problem and he had no idea on how to handle that.

Take out the bad guys and swoop in to save the day? That he could do. Find a way to apologise to his rookie for not trusting her and letting his anger get the better of him, abandoning her in the process? _Much_ more difficult!

Ward’s thoughts were interrupted, however, as he heard steps coming towards the entrance to the cargo hold, and a moment later he suddenly found himself face to face with the young woman in question, Agent Simmons walking next to her.

The two had obviously been talking quietly with each other, but now Skye had been stunned into silence and was staring at him like a deer caught in the headlights, a look Ward could only guess was also mirrored on his own face.

“Oh, hello, Agent Ward,” Simmons greeted him clumsily in an attempt to break the awkward silence, “I didn’t know you would be sitting here. Skye and I had been looking for a place to chat a bit, but I guess we could also go over to my bunk, or-”, but Ward didn’t even let her finish the sentence as he quickly got up from his seat and took a step backwards towards the command centre of the Bus and the area behind it.

“No, don’t be ridiculous, you guys sit down, I… was going to make myself something to eat, anyway,” he blurted out, eager to get away from this uncomfortable situation as quickly as possible.

Ward cursed himself inwardly as he made his way over to the kitchen area, knowing that he had to do something to fix this soon if he didn’t want to spend the next few weeks with him and Skye trying to avoid each other.

He briefly glanced over to the young woman as he started gathering the ingredients for a sandwich and saw her sitting next to Simmons on the main couch of the lounge area, but before he had even set down the plate, he suddenly noticed the scientist walking in his direction, leaving Skye alone in the back of the plane.

The specialist sighed as Simmons came towards him, already anticipating what she was going to say.

“Look, I know that Skye wants me to stay away from her, but it’s a small plane and-”

“What?” the scientist asked, clearly puzzled by Ward’s reaction. “Oh, no, don’t worry, that’s not why I came over. Actually, I just thought that you had the right idea about getting something to eat, so I offered Skye to prepare something as well.”

“Oh,” the specialist simply replied as he realised that his defensiveness had been for nothing, “yeah, sure. In fact, I was going to make me a sandwich, but there’s enough for two more, if you want.”

Simmons accepted the offer with a small nod and the two agents remained silent for a while as they stood side by side, preparing dinner.

Finally, it was Ward who broke the quiet, as he didn’t want to waste this opportunity to find out just how much damage he had caused.

“How is she?” he asked quietly, not looking up from the slice of bread he was just coating with mayonnaise.

“You mean after you came clean to her about your initial stubbornness following her disappearance?” Simmons asked, prompting Ward to abandon his food for a moment and face her directly.

“I mean after I told her that I had wanted to abandon her while she was being tortured,” he corrected the scientist, shaking his head briefly at himself.

The young woman scrutinised him in silence for a few seconds, as if she was trying to determine how sincere his reaction was. Ultimately, she took a small step towards the specialist and laid her hand on his arm briefly to convey her compassion.

“Well, we all know that Skye is going through a lot right now, and while I’ll admit that you most likely _didn’t_ exactly make things any easier for her, you _had_ to tell her eventually and there never would have been a good moment to come out with something like that,” she assured Ward. “Yes, you misjudged Skye badly and that probably in the worst possible circumstances, but you’ve also already started to make up for that, so just give it time, alright? I’m not so sure Skye is ready to listen to an apology just yet, but I’m sure she’ll give you another chance eventually.”

A sceptical frown appeared on Ward’s forehead as he looked down at Simmons, obviously not completely convinced by her words.

“So you think I already started to make up for my mistake? How so?” he asked, confused.

“Well,” Simmons replied as she stepped back to her dinner preparations, “first and foremost, you were the one who freed Skye from that hell hole she had been locked up in. I’m sure that earned you a few points in her book,” she added light-heartedly.

“The whole team got her out of there, I was simply the first at her room,” Ward objected instantly, only for Jemma to reply in turn.

“Play it down however you like, Ward, but you seem to be making a real habit of being the first to the rescue. I even recall you being the first to jump out of a plane to rescue me as well not too long ago.” There was a sly grin on Jemma’s lips by now, but the specialist still didn’t seem to be following her line of thought.

“I did have a parachute, though,” he pointed out, causing a small frown to appear on the scientist’s forehead this time.

“Well, of course you did. What good would you jumping after me have done either of us otherwise?” She replied with a small laugh, shaking her head in disbelief.

There was another moment of silence between the two agents, less tense this time, while they both continued to work on their dinner. This time it was Simmons, however, who spoke up again first, her voice much more timid than before.

“Can I ask you something?” she wondered, glancing up at Ward hesitantly.

“Of course,” the specialist replied, although he obviously wasn’t sure where the biochemist was going with this.

Simmons took a deep breath as if she couldn’t quite bring herself to come out with the question, and it took another long moment until she finally spoke once more.

“Why?”

The word hung in the air heavily, but was only met with a puzzled expression from Ward, finally causing Simmons to elaborate further.

“Why were you so quick to give up on Skye in the first place? I mean, I obviously know that you took her lying to us about Miles pretty hard, but I honestly thought you were past that. That you trusted her again.”

Ward was caught completely off guard by the question – a question he had been asking himself over and over again this past few days – and it took him a moment to gather himself enough to answer it. As he did, he shook his head briefly once more, letting out a small humourless laugh in the process.

“Honestly, I’m not even completely sure. I _wanted_ to trust Skye again, and when we went out on that mission I thought I did, but when I saw that note… I guess deep down I’m just not good at trusting anyone.” The specialist sighed in frustration, obviously still angry at himself.

“You know, reading people, assessing their motivations, realising if they’re up to or hiding something, that’s the sort of thing I was trained for, something I’ve always been good at, but with Skye… I don’t know… with her it’s just something else entirely. She’s always been a riddle to me.”

“A riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma,” Simmons quipped with a grin, causing Ward to chuckle softly in return.

“Yeah, exactly. I guess you Brits always said it best.” He sobered up again quickly, however, the topic still weighing heavily on his mind.

“Had it been anyone else with me on that mission, I think I would have suspected _something_ , but with Skye…” Ward turned away from Simmons now and walked over to the other side of the small kitchen area, obviously needing some way to vent his frustration. “You know, at first when I kept getting no answer over the comm, and then when I found the hotel room empty, I was so worried about her, but then when I saw the note it just felt like Austin all over again. I had been wrong about her then, and somehow I convinced myself that it was the same this time, even though I should have known better.”

The specialist sighed as he led himself sink against one of the kitchen cupboards, looking back at Simmons now.

“You know, I think the truth is that deep down I wanted to trust Skye, in fact, a part of me _did_ trust her, it’s just that-”

“You didn’t trust yourself,” Simmons completed his sentence for the specialist, looking at him with understanding in her eyes.

“No, I didn’t,” Ward agreed silently. “At least not with her.”

The words hung in the air for a long moment until Simmons finally spoke again, one eyebrow slightly raised in curiosity.

“But what about now?” she wondered. “Do you trust Skye – and yourself – now?”

“Yes, I do,” Ward answered, not missing a beat this time.

“Why, what changed?” the scientist wanted to know, needing to understand the agents reasoning.

“You mean aside from Skye getting kidnapped and tortured, because of me doubting her?” he replied back disbelievingly, but still went on to properly answer the question, his voice laced with sadness.

“When I talked to Skye the night after we had saved her from Talos, she actually apologised to me for believing Tyler’s lies that we had abandoned her. I wanted to stop her, to tell her the truth, but I didn’t know what to say. I mean, can you even believe that after everything she’s been through, she would be worried about something like that, that _she_ didn’t have enough faith in _us_?” he asked, completely incredulous.

“Well, we are talking about Skye here, so I guess I can,” Simmons quickly replied with a genuine smile on her lips, prompting a small nod from Ward.

“Exactly. It might have taken me a while to see it, but I know now that Skye is special. I’ve doubted her before, and I’ve never been more wrong in my entire life. That’s not going to happen again.”

 

**To be continued…**


	37. Sub-Level 27

“A shrink?” Skye asked, looking up at the two agents in front of her in disbelief. “You guys want me to see a shrink?”

She was sitting on the couch in Coulson’s office, after he had called her up here once more, only that this time Agent May was with them as well, standing next to their team’s leader to provide backup.

“Psychiatrist,” Coulson corrected the young woman, only to then nod in agreement, “but, yes, that is exactly what Agent May and I both think is best for you right now.” He leaned back against the front of his desk at this point, watching Skye as she struggled to come up with a response, anything that would speak against this assessment.

Before she had the chance to say anything, though, May spoke up as well, clearly hoping that her input would make the young woman realise that getting some professional help was the best course of action right now.

“Skye, this isn’t just about whether you _need_ help or not. Any agent who goes through a traumatic ordeal like you have has to pass a mandatory psychological evaluation before being allowed back to active duty.”

“Which means it’s not mandatory for me, seeing as I’m not an agent,” the hacker pointed out with a sly grin on her lips. Said grin quickly vanished again, however, as she looked back at Coulson and noticed the disapproving expression on his face.

“It might not be, officially, but I still think it’s necessary. You know that all of us are here to help you however we can, Skye, but I believe that talking to a professional is an important step on your road to recovery. A step that I can’t let you dodge just because it might be uncomfortable,” he emphasised, much to the young woman’s disappointment. “But don’t worry,” he added, in a much more light-hearted tone this time, “I’ve already spoken to an old friend of mine at Wakefield Institute, Dr. Patrick, and he is willing to see you as soon as we get there.”

There was a slightly confused look on Skye’s face, but before she could voice her question out loud, Agent May already supplied the answer.

“Wakefield Institute is SHIELD’s leading mental trauma facility. They employ some of the best doctors in the world, and a lot of agents go there to get help.”

Although Skye had so far only been slightly opposed to the idea of seeing a psychiatrist as part of her recovery, the idea of a mental trauma facility suddenly made her mind jump to conclusions that left the young woman visibly upset. She quickly got up from her seat in clear distress, facing the two agents in front of her with an appalled expression on her face.

“Okay, I get that I’m not ready for active duty right away again after everything that happened, but not only do I apparently have to wait for what sounds like _weeks_ to even start training again, now you actually want to have me committed to an asylum?”

Coulson and May exchanged a brief glance in confusion, both of them caught off guard by Skye’s fierce reaction, but before either of them had the chance to correct her, the hacker already continued, her voice rising steadily.

“Honestly, I don’t care if this is mandatory or not, I’m not going to go there. I know you probably think that just because I’m not fit to go on missions any longer you can just lock me up with the other nutjobs, but–”

“Skye, that’s enough!” Agent Coulson suddenly interrupted his team’s rookie, his loud and unusually sharp tone stunning her into silence immediately.

For a moment there was an uncomfortable tension in the air as Skye stared at her superior angrily and he in turn faced her with a look of disapproval. A few seconds later, however, after Coulson had used the opportunity to take in the young woman’s appearance more thoroughly, he ultimately let out a heavy sigh as if he was reminding himself that it was fear that had motivated her outburst and nothing else.

He gestured for Skye to sit back down on the couch as he pulled up a seat for himself so that they were on eye level. When he went on to explain the situation more thoroughly to the team’s rookie, his harshness from before was gone entirely, replaced once again by the fatherly affection that had always characterised their relationship.

“First of all, Wakefield Institute is neither an asylum, nor will you be committed there against your will. Should you or Dr. Patrick think it would be helpful for you to stay a while longer, we will _talk_ about it, but again, none of this will happen without your approval.

And secondly, not a single one of the patients at Wakefield Institute is a ‘nutjob’ and neither are you, Skye. All of them are agents who were fighting for the greater good, willing to lay down their lives in the service of SHIELD, even though it didn’t come to that. Instead they sacrificed their health and in a few cases even their sanity in the line of duty and now SHIELD is doing everything humanly possible to help them get better.”

Coulson leaned forward a little in his chair at this point, as if he was trying to put even more emphasis on his next words.

“And that is exactly the reason why I want you to talk to Dr. Patrick. Skye, I know you’ve been fighting hard to keep going ever since you’re back with us, that you’re trying to push away what happened to you, but I think if you’re being honest with yourself, you know that what you are dealing with is not going to go away overnight. There are people capable of helping you come to terms with what you’ve gone through, but even the best psychiatrist in the world won’t be able to do anything for you if you’re not willing to give this a chance.

So that’s all I’m asking for here, a chance. One session and if you don’t want to continue, I promise you, you won’t have to.” Coulson looked at Skye imploringly, finally causing her sceptical expression to soften.

“One session?” she repeated, wanting to make sure that she wasn’t agreeing to anything else for now. “That’s it? And no padded rooms, no straitjackets–”

“Skye–”, Coulson began, but before he could say anything more, the hacker cut him off again quickly, a smile on her lips and her voice sounding a lot more relaxed than before.

“Kidding, alright? I mean, I know I have some issues right now, but I also know that it’s not _that_ bad; or, well, at least I hope it’s not that bad,” she conceded, laughing awkwardly. “Anyway, if it means I’ll get back to my training more quickly, I’ll talk to your guy, just don’t expect this to go all ‘Good Will Hunting’, okay?”

“We’ll be there tomorrow, then we’ll see how it goes,” Coulson replied diplomatically, before Skye finally got up from her seat once more, excusing herself from the office as she knew they were done here.

After she had closed the door behind her and stood on top of the spiral staircase, she hesitated a moment, not really knowing what to think.

On the one hand she obviously realised that Coulson and May had had a point, and that turning away professional help when it was offered to her would be more than stupid, but on the other hand she also couldn’t quite shake off the feeling of dread in her stomach at the mere idea of once again having to go over everything she had been through and to relive all the details of her kidnapping.

While she had obviously already told parts of what had happened to her to her teammates, the truth was that deep down Skye wanted nothing more than to stop thinking about it and to forget she had ever been taken. If there were a way, she would do anything to remove the names Jack and Curtis Tyler from her mind and erase all the damage he had caused in there.

She knew, however, that there was little point in wishing the memory away and so she sighed deeply as she headed down the steps to the common area, only to almost run into Agent Haze, who had been walking her way.

“Oh, sorry,” Skye mumbled, embarrassed that she hadn’t been paying any attention to her surroundings.

“Don’t worry, no harm done,” Haze replied quickly before she fell silent for a moment, obviously considering what to say next. As they were both just looking at each other, Skye suddenly noticed something in the other woman’s hand, but before she could even start guessing about what it was, the agent continued, giving the answer herself.

“Agent Fitz and I finally finished our work on Talos’ damaged hard drives and I just wanted to give Agent Coulson the data we were able to save,” she indicated a small flash drive in her hand, “before I was going to say goodbye to everyone.”

“You’re leaving?” Skye asked back in surprise, the files in Talos’ database she had been so concerned about earlier quickly forgotten. Of course she had known that the blonde agent’s stay with the team was only going to be temporary, but for some reason she hadn’t thought she would be gone again so soon.

“Yes, I am. One of the last support teams that has been helping with the prisoners is heading for the Hub, so I’ll be hitching a ride with them later. I have to admit, I enjoyed my stay with your team, more than I would have thought, but I came here to help find you and Dr. O’Leary and that’s both done, so it’s time for me to go back to my usual work.”

“Monitoring SHIELD tags?” Skye quipped before she could stop herself, prompting a slightly embarrassed look to appear on the agent’s face.

“So Agent Coulson told you, huh?”

“Yeah, he mentioned it,” Skye answered, but there wasn’t even a trace of an accusation in her voice. She still didn’t really like the thought of the woman in front of her having run surveillance on her, but aside from the fact that she had brought said surveillance onto herself, Haze’s role in ending her kidnapping was more than enough for Skye to look past any hard feelings she might have had towards her.

“I guess I probably should have mentioned it at some point,” Haze admitted now, “but it just didn’t seem like the best way to introduce myself.”

“Honestly, it doesn’t really matter anymore,” Skye replied with a small shake of her head, alleviating the blonde woman’s obvious concern. “I always knew that there was someone monitoring me with that bracelet, I guess finding out that it was you just doesn’t make that much of a difference.”

“Well, at least now you know who that ‘someone somewhere’ was,” Haze pointed out in return, much to Skye’s bewilderment.

“What?” the young woman asked, startled by the familiar term.

“Oh, it’s what Agent Ward called me once he figured out my connection to you. I think he mentioned that it was something you had said once,” Haze recalled, a slightly uncertain frown on her face.

“Yeah, I did say that,” Skye agreed hesitantly, the mention of Ward and their last mission together catching her completely off guard.

She fell silent after that, leaving an awkward silence in the air that quickly made Agent Haze realise what a difficult subject her teammate was for the young woman at the moment, prompting her to change the topic of the conversation.

“Actually, there’s also something else I wanted to tell you before I leave. It’s something I found while I was taking a look through what remained of Talos’ database earlier.”

“What, more of Jack’s home videos?” Skye asked, using her sometimes dark sense of humour to try and mask how horrified she still was by the idea that there existed a recording of her ordeal.

“No,” Haze replied, shaking her head as she ignored the slightly crude joke, “it’s actually something good for once. As it turns out, Trevor Green had his people make a copy of the files you deleted from SHIELD’s servers and while parts of it were irreparably damaged when we took their hideout, Agent Fitz and I were able to save most of it after all. I just thought you’d like to know that you didn’t cause as much damage with your hack into SHIELD as you might have thought.”

“Well, that’s good,” Skye replied with a faint smile, but to her own surprise she realised that she wasn’t nearly as relieved at the news as she would have thought she’d be. After all, while it was good to know that the team’s efforts against Centipede so far hadn’t been for nothing, the fact that she had helped Jack in the first place remained and nothing would ever change that.

The young woman knew of course that she was already ignoring her earlier realisation, that continuing to punish herself for what she had done during her imprisonment was pointless, but she just couldn’t stop the angry thoughts from creeping back up on her repeatedly despite knowing better.

Seeing as Skye hadn’t exactly shown the reaction Agent Haze must have expected, the taller woman looked at her slightly perplexed for a moment, scrutinising her. She could obviously tell that something was wrong, but didn’t know what exactly was going through Skye’s mind. At first, she didn’t quite seem to know how to respond, but then she obviously decided that the young woman could need some cheering up, no matter what had caused her sullen mood.

“You know, off the record, I actually thought that hack you did was pretty impressive. You got through all of SHIELD’s security measures and then you even managed to use them to your advantage to delete the files you were targeting; that was really clever,” she pointed out, clearly impressed.

It didn’t do much to improve Skye’s mood, however, as the young woman replied sulkily once again.

“Yeah, just too bad that that was me using my skills _against_ SHIELD once again. I guess there are probably a couple of agents out there who’d rather see me in the Fridge for that than still here with Coulson’s team,” she stated, but to her surprise her statement actually prompted a small laugh from Agent Haze.

“No, that would be a waste of talent. Trust me, SHIELD is rather comfortable with recruiting people who have a tendency for breaking the rules,” she reassured the young hacker.

Her words involuntarily made Skye think back to her first solo mission on the team and to what Ian Quinn had told her back then.

“Yeah, I guess I do fit their profile. A criminal with a specialised skill set and no family; that’s me, the perfect SHIELD recruit,” she huffed, the completely accurate assessment still as painful as it had been when she had first heard it.

As Agent Haze looked back at her, there was a warm expression in her eyes, betraying a genuine fondness for the young woman.

“You know, Skye, you definitely possess the skill set and maybe you really haven’t completely shaken off the criminal part just yet, but if you honestly think that you don’t have a family, then I don’t know who I’ve been spending the last few days with,” she pointed out much to the hacker’s surprise.

Both women fell silent after this for a few seconds, until Skye’s mood finally seemed to lighten up a little, a small smile playing on her lips.

“I’m actually not sure if I said this before, but in case I haven’t, _thank you_. For helping with my rescue and… everything,” she declared, prompting a small nod from Agent Haze.

“Anytime, Skye. And I’m really glad I could help,” the blonde woman replied as she held out her hand for the hacker. Skye ignored it, however, and gave the agent a brief hug instead, before she left, giving her the opportunity to continue on her way up to Coulson’s office.

 

* * *

 

A car was going to pick her up any minute now, but at the moment Agent Haze was still standing in the cargo hold, saying goodbye to Agent Coulson and his team for good.

She had already shaken hands with Agent Ward, who was now standing a noticeable distance away from the others, including Skye, and even though she didn’t know either of them that well, the analyst nevertheless hoped that the suddenly tense situation between the two would be resolved soon. Not only did the young woman already have more than enough on her plate to deal with, without being at odds with her S.O., but Haze herself had also seen what a u-turn the specialist had made regarding his rookie, once he had found out that she had been in danger and had not, as he had initially believed, abandoned the them.

The agent briefly wondered if she would ever meet Coulson’s team again and find out how this rift between them had turned out, but before she could think about that any further, Agent May stepped forward now and briefly shook her hand as well, causing the thought to disappear from her mind.

“It was good to have you on board,” she simply noted curtly, before it was Agent Fitz’s turn to see the blonde woman off.

“I don’t know when we’re going to be at the Hub again, but maybe Jemma and I will come in to say hi when we’re there,” he proposed with a shy grin, causing the blonde agent to nod in return.

“Of course, please do that, I’d be happy to hear from any of you again,” she replied eagerly, already knowing that she would actually miss the familial atmosphere on the Bus.

“Yeah, now that you’re not getting daily updates from my tracker anymore, you’ll be pretty out of the loop, right?” Skye chimed in, but it was obvious that her teasing was meant as a light-hearted joke and not genuine bitterness.

“You think you can complain?” Fitz now replied back, looking over at Skye. “Agent Haze might have been monitoring your tracker, but at least she didn’t break any of your invaluable prototypes,” he pointed out with an only half-serious look of anger on his face.

“Well, technically, I think it was Agent Ward who broke the Overkill device,” Haze now jumped in on the friendly banter, causing even the specialist in question to break his silence.

“It was either us or the other guys and that shot saved our lives.” His voice was completely deadpan as he made that observation, but even the often so serious agent softened a little as he continued. “Honestly, though, that thing was pretty handy. When you make a new one, Fitz, you should just see that you make it smaller. And lighter. And not so prone to blowing up in your hands when you fire it more than once,” he added, a smirk on his lips that was clearly meant as a provocation to Fitz.

Before the scientist had a chance to reply, however, Agent Simmons came forward now, giving Agent Haze a firm hug that cut off the back and forth between the group.

“Well, I’ll certainly admit that I would have preferred to meet under better circumstances,” she stated as she pulled back after a few seconds, “but I’m still glad we had you on the team for this, Rebecca. And of course we’ll drop by if we happen to be at the Hub and get the opportunity.”

“I’d love that,” the agent replied back, but before she could say anything else, they were interrupted as a car suddenly pulled up outside.

“Well, that’s my ride,” Haze stated with a sigh before she looked at the group around her once more, a twinge of sadness inside of her. Her eyes rested on Skye for a long moment, but in the end, she didn’t say anything to the young woman and simply nodded at her encouragingly, knowing that she was in good hands.

Then she headed down the cargo hold ramp, Agent Coulson accompanying her a few steps along the way.

“I meant what I said before; I owe you a favour, so don’t forget to call if you need anything.”

“I won’t, sir,” Agent Haze replied, looking back at the Bus one last time.

When Agent Coulson held out his hand to her, she shook it immediately, feeling a deep-seated respect for the man after having seen how he was leading his team.

“Goodbye, Agent Coulson. I’m not sure when we’ll meet next time, but I’m with Agent Simmons and hope that the circumstances will be better then.”

“Agreed,” Coulson answered, before he nodded to the blonde woman and she headed down the rest of the way to the car.

When she opened the back door of the black SHIELD vehicle, however, she suddenly realised that there was already someone sitting on the other side of the backseat, causing her to pause briefly. It just took her a short moment to recognise the familiar face, though, prompting her to let out a small sigh before she ultimately sat down inside the car after all, closing the door in the process.

"Agent Wilson," she curtly greeted the man she had met at the hospital the night before; the same man who had given her the drug she had used on Tyler. "I guess you're not here to take me back to the Hub, are you?" Of course she already knew the answer to this and wasn't really surprised as the agent replied.

"No, I'm not. He wants to see you."

" _Of course_ he does," Haze responded sarcastically, resigned herself to her new orders as she leaned back in her seat, determined to make the best of the situation. "Well, we might as well meet face to face now, because, honestly, I've got some questions of my own."

 

* * *

 

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

There was complete darkness around her and the only thing disrupting the silence was the sound of her own breathing, as Skye was desperately trying to force herself to relax.

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

She knew that she was probably being too stubborn for her own good right now, but nevertheless she kept repeating these instructions in her head over and over while taking one deep breath after another, willing herself to calm down and fall asleep. Her fingers were still gripping the bed sheet underneath her tightly, however, proving that this was easier said than done.

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

The Bus had taken off a while ago, but while it was certainly a relief to be in the air again, not even the change in scenery was making it any easier for the young woman to find some relaxation in the confinement of her bunk, the tight dark space reminding her far too much of her cell during her kidnapping.

Of course she knew that the easiest thing would be to just turn on the light on her bedside table again, but she just hated the fact that the darkness was making her feel this vulnerable, defenceless and afraid, and so she was stubbornly trying her best to push past all that and go back to her usual sleeping routine, no matter how uncomfortable it was making her feel.

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

Skye’s mind wandered back to the psychiatrist she was going to see tomorrow at Wakefield Institute, where they were headed right now, and her determination increased even further. If Coulson and May thought that she couldn’t function properly anymore without professional help, she was going to prove them wrong right here and now. She was going to get through her fear on her own, without some stranger analysing her and everything she’d been through.

_Breathe in. Breathe out._

A part of her wanted to get up and go to the kitchen to get some warm milk like the night before, but not only was she determined to face this problem head-on without leaving her bunk again before she had been able to fall asleep at night in here, but a part of her also realised that it probably hadn’t been so much the warm beverage that had calmed her down last night, but Ward’s presence instead. Now, the possibility that she might run into him out there was actually another reason for her to remain where she was, staring up into the darkness around her.

Skye knew that the specialist regretted his lack of faith in her and that he had wanted to abandon her to her fate, but despite the fact that even someone like Fitz had been urging her to give him another chance, she couldn’t quite bring herself to do that yet. She already hated not being able to talk to Ward as freely as before, but the fact that she kept feeling worse whenever she so much as saw him at the moment made staying away from him the obvious choice.

Which was one of the reasons why she was lying here alone right now, forcing herself to remain in the dark in this suffocatingly small room, despite all the memories and fears that it was bringing back to the surface.

_Breathe in. Breathe –_

_– “Maybe a few more hours in the dark will help you see the truth more clearly.” –_

Skye closed her eyes tightly as the memory of Jack’s voice shot through her mind, pulling her right back into the cold and dark confinement of her cell, the image of his silhouette blocking out the light from the doorway suddenly all she could think of.

Without being able to stop herself, she was suddenly sitting upright in her bed, her fingers flying to a switch on the nightstand, turning on the light in the room.

Skye took a sharp breath to calm herself down, as her heart was racing in her chest, and then punched the covers in anger, frustrated with herself.

 _This is getting ridiculous_ , she thought dryly, hating the fact that something as simple as falling asleep in her own bunk was suddenly such a difficult issue. She knew the others would tell her to be patient right now, but the way things were going, she was quickly running out of patience with herself on this matter.

Her frustrated thought were interrupted, when there was suddenly a soft knock on the door, startling the young woman. She didn’t answer at first, but a few seconds later she could hear May’s voice coming from the outside, causing her to roll her eyes at the agent’s persistence.

“Is everything alright in there, Skye?”

The hacker remained silent for another moment, but as she was pretty sure that Agent May wasn’t going to go away, and she certainly didn’t want her to burst into her room and most likely wake everyone else in the process, she finally got out of bed and opened the door.

“Yes, I’m fine,” she told the specialist, an annoyed look on her face.

“You’re having trouble sleeping.” It was an observation, not a question, and Skye actually rolled her eyes once more in response.

“Yeah, so what? Turning off the lights makes me nervous, I’m just trying to get over that.” She did her best to make the issue sound as harmless as possible, but somehow May was still able to see right through her and figure out the reason for her difficulties.

“Tyler kept you locked up in complete darkness for long periods of time, didn’t he?” she asked, causing a look of embarrassment to pass over the young woman’s features and only prompting a small nod in reply. “It’s not unusual for traumatic memories associated with a specific environment to be triggered in similar circumstances, Skye,” the specialist went on to explain, but obviously without much effect.

“Yeah, well, if you say it like that, of course it sounds better than ‘I’m afraid of the dark, just like a six-year-old’”, Skye pointed out, a disgruntled look on her face.

May watched the team’s rookie in silence for a few seconds, clearly trying to decide how to handle her, but as she finally spoke again, it wasn’t exactly the reply Skye had expected.

“Come with me, I want to show you something.”

The team’s pilot didn’t wait for a reply to her invitation and instead headed back towards the front of the plane, clearly expecting Skye to follow her. The hacker looked after her for a moment, unsure about what to do, but in the end she realised that she wasn’t going to get any sleep any time soon, anyway, so she figured she might as well find out what all of this was about.

She followed Agent May into the cockpit, the agent already back in the pilot seat, and sat down beside her, uncertain about what to expect.

“So, what is it you want to show me, because, honestly, if you want to start giving me pilot lessons, I’m not so sure this is the right time for it.”

Skye could clearly see the disapproval in May’s eyes as she looked over at her, not liking the way she kept resorting to jokes, no matter the situation. The agent didn’t say anything about it, though, and kept her voice at ease as she answered her.

“No, I just want to show you something that might help you with your sleeping problem,” she announced cryptically. “Just … relax,” May finally ordered gently as she reached out to the control panels in front of her, flipping a few switches until all the lights in the small room, except from a few important looking displays, suddenly went out, leaving the two women in the dark.

“What the hell are you doing?” Skye asked, bewildered, already about to get up from her seat as Agent May reached out, laying a gentle but firm hand on her wrist.

“ _Stay_ ,” the agent said emphatically, causing Skye to look at her in anger.

“Why should I? I already admitted that I can’t stand being in a dark room anymore after Jack always kept me locked up in one, and that I can’t even sleep in my own bunk with the lights out now, so what is all this going to prove? Even with you here, it’s still dark, so unless you plan on babysitting me even when I want to go to sleep, I don’t see how this is going to help.”

“Are you done?” Agent May asked in a perfectly serene tone which somehow annoyed Skye more than she would have thought. “Because this isn’t about me being here with you, it’s about you realising that there is more than enough light in your bunk, even without you turning on the one on your bedside table.”

“What are you talking about?” Skye protested, indicating the controls of the plane. “I don’t have all these kinds of displays in my room, so–”

“No, that’s not what I mean,” May interrupted her immediately, seemingly disappointed that the young woman didn’t understand what she was getting at. “Look outside, Skye,” she said, tilting her head slightly in the direction of the front window.

The hacker kept looking at May for another moment in confusion, before she finally followed her line of sight and looked out into the night sky surrounding the plane.

She kept her gaze directed this way for several seconds without realising what exactly she was supposed to be looking at, but just as she was about to turn back to the agent beside her and complain about this pointless exercise, she noticed a bright star slightly to the left of the window. And then another one right beside it. And another.

With the lights inside the cockpit turned off, and now that she was actually paying attention, Skye continued to become aware of more and more stars around them and even leaned closer to the windows so that she was getting a better view. She could even make out the Milky Way now, stretching across the sky like a wide ribbon, something she hadn’t consciously looked at since she had been a child.

“You don’t see the stars like that in L.A.,” she pointed out absentmindedly, her eyes still focused on the beautiful display all around her.

“No, you don’t,” Agent May agreed with a small shake of her head, quickly falling silent again.

Still clearly impressed with the view, Skye remained quiet as well and just kept sitting in her seat, looking around in wonder. She almost couldn’t believe that she had never noticed this spectacle right outside her bunk window, especially in a moment like earlier, when she had been so desperate for any light in the darkness.

The silence in the cockpit stretched on for a long time, both women surprisingly comfortable with each other as they were sitting side by side.

“Thank you,” Skye finally muttered after a while, briefly glancing over at the agent beside her, not knowing what else to say.

May returned the look and simply nodded in reply, certain that any more words would be unnecessary right now.

 

* * *

 

Skye wasn’t quite sure if she had fallen asleep for a while or had just started to doze off, but she was suddenly startled wide awake again, as she suddenly heard movement from behind. It took her a moment to realise what was happening, but then she realised that Agent Coulson had entered the cockpit, clearly as surprised to see her here as she was to see him.

He just briefly acknowledged her presence, though, and then focused on the pilot instead.

“May, I need you to divert us to Batesville, Utah. Looks like we have a mission there,” he announced, obviously startling the specialist.

“You picked us a new mission?” she asked, only a slight raise of her eyebrow betraying her bewilderment at the new order. “ _Now_?” She added, her eyes darting over to Skye briefly, a movement that wasn’t lost on the young woman and caused her to let out an exasperated sound.

“Look, guys, I know that I’m not fit to go out on a mission yet, but that doesn’t mean that none of you can, either. So you drop me off with that SHIELD shrink one day later, what’s the big deal?”

Coulson scrutinised the hacker for a brief moment, the hint of a grin playing on his lips at her nonchalant attitude, but ultimately he ignored her objection completely and replied to the team’s pilot instead.

“I know what you’re saying, May, and I did try to pass this one off, but it’s a delicate situation regarding a possibly gifted person and at this point it’s either us or a strike team going in, which is something I’d really like to avoid. So would you please redirect the Bus to Utah?”

Instead of replying directly, the agent simply glared at Coulson for another moment, before she turned back around to the controls and started making the according adjustments to change the course of the plane, pointedly ignoring her superior.

Meanwhile, Skye was becoming increasingly excited at the prospect of meeting a person with special abilities, her fascination with the matter still as profound as it had been when she had met Mike Peterson a few months ago. She had turned completely around in her seat by now and was hugging the back of the chair as she looked up at Coulson, a grin plastered on her lips.

“So this ‘possibly gifted person’, what can he do? Is he super strong, like Mike? Or maybe shoot lightning from his hands? I mean, that’d be pretty cool, right?”

Coulson regarded the young woman with a soft smile for a moment, obviously glad to see some of her usual enthusiasm resurfaced, even though there was still a small trace of concern hidden in his eyes.

“No, according to the reports, _she_ seems to possess telekinetic abilities, although it will be up to us to verify that,” he explained, causing Skye to lean further towards him.

“Wait, a telekinetic, I thought they didn’t exist,” she replied, visibly in awe at the news.

“Well, we haven’t found one yet, but as they say, there is always a first,” Coulson pointed out, the professional look on his face never wavering although even he seemed to be slightly excited at the prospect of encountering someone with powers they had never come across before.

He was already about to leave the cockpit again at this point, when May’s voice suddenly held him back.

“Coulson,” she said quietly, causing the other agent to turn back around to her, “if it’s just us going out there, you might want to reconsider Ward’s suspension. If the reports are true, you know we could use him out there.”

“I know. I’ll think about it,” he conceded, this time finally leaving the cockpit. Before he managed to close the door, however, Skye called out to him once more, curiosity getting the better of her.

“What’s her name?” she asked, and once Coulson had opened the door fully once more, looking directly at her, she repeated the question. “The woman, the _telekinetic_ , what’s her name?”

“Hannah Hutchins.”

  

* * *

 

Agent Haze took another look at the dark, non-descript walls around her, trying futilely to get a read on her whereabouts as she was walking down a long corridor alongside Agent Wilson.

Location: _classified_ , indeed.

They had gotten here on a small plane with just the two of them and the pilot, the windows blocked and no information on where they were going, much to the agent’s annoyance. She already had a pretty clear idea about what this facility was, and knew whom she was going to meet here, but this entire operation already entailed far too much secrecy for her liking, and it was becoming more than apparent that despite the role she had been forced to play in all of this, she wasn’t completely trusted, either.

They had reached the end of the corridor now and were standing in front of an elevator, but before Haze could ask where exactly they were going, Agent Wilson had pressed the button to open the door, motioning for her to get inside.

She raised an eyebrow in slight surprise as the man remained outside the elevator, wondering why he wasn’t coming along.

“Sub-level 27. He’ll meet you down there in a few minutes,” he simply instructed and then silently stood in front of the female agent as he waited for her to press the according button.

As she knew that there wasn’t much point in arguing or asking any questions, Haze followed the instruction and pressed the button reading SL27, a bright blue ring appearing around it. The elevator didn’t take long to get all those floors down, but when the doors opened in front of her again, her surroundings had changed significantly.

While the first level of the building had obviously been nothing more but the entrance area, this section here was clearly a medical ward, with rows of med beds behind glass walls to both sides of the corridor that was leading away from the elevator.

She could see medical staff tending to a couple of patients, but she knew that none of them were the reason why she was here, so she continued down the hallway instead. After she had passed through a door, she suddenly found herself in a wider, but shorter corridor, with only four beds behind glass in total, two on each side. Going by the medical equipment present here, these cells were clearly restricted to patients with more severe injuries in contrast to the ones before.

As Agent Haze looked around, she quickly realised that three of the four beds were empty, leaving her to approach the fourth one slowly. She already knew whom she was going to see here, but there was still a tight knot in her stomach as she looked at the bandaged figure lying in the bed in front of her; the monster the entire world thought was dead. Curtis Tyler.

**To be continued…**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Special shout-out to colormeblue, not only for her absolutely lovely review, but also for being the first and only reviewer on this story, who EVER questioned Jack's death! Kudos to you!


	38. Valid Concerns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, finally some answers…

Agent Haze had her arms crossed in front of her chest as she watched Tyler’s unconscious form through the glass wall in front of her, her tense fingers digging into her skin.

Everything about this place, from its hidden nature, the hospital atmosphere of this floor in particular and of course to the mercenary himself was making her skin crawl and reminded her of how much she despised the role she had been playing in all of this.

Her job had been to fake Tyler’s death so he could have been brought here, but while she never would have accepted an order to kill a defenceless prisoner for real, a small part of her had actually been hoping that the drug she had administered to him would have been too much for his weakened state, killing him after all. Because she knew enough of the atrocities the mercenary had committed in the past that the thought of him eventually being unleashed on the world again was more than a bit unsettling to her, and considering all the steps that had been taken to keep him out of the Fridge, she was afraid that that was exactly where all of this was headed.

Agent Haze closed her eyes for a moment and let out a small sigh, the soft beeping of the machines monitoring Tyler’s vitals the only sound filling the air.

The noise was bringing back the memory of last night’s events; of Olivia sitting by her brother’s side, her eyes filled with the tentative hope she had had for his recovery, but most of all, Haze remembered the young woman’s desperation when she had watched her brother die right in front of her, unable to help.

This sharp pain of witnessing the death of a loved one was something the agent was glad never to have experienced herself, but she could still sympathise with the young woman all too well, as she knew the loss she had suffered.

It had been twelve years since the car accident that had cost her younger sister’s life, but she could still vividly remember the incomprehensively sad look in her mother’s eyes as the usually so strong and resolute woman had told her of her sister’s fate, her voice choked up and trembling. And she also remembered the burning, all consuming ache in her chest as the news had started to sink in, the same feeling Haze knew she had now inflicted on Olivia, despite her growing sympathies for the red headed woman.

The agent sighed once again, louder this time, as she leaned with one hand against the glass in front of her, trying not to dwell on her guilty conscience any longer. She had only been following orders, after all, and despite the facts that she would have rather seen Tyler shipped off to the Fridge than brought here and that she was admittedly having considerable doubts about this mission, she was also determined to cling to the faint hope that her employer knew what he was doing and that his plan would pan out in the end.

A few minutes passed by like this until the sound of the door behind her opening, followed by the heavy footsteps of a man walking towards her, finally pulled the agent out of her thoughts. She didn’t need to turn around to know who was approaching her and as she was too upset with the entire situation right now to care about protocol, she didn’t and just kept focusing on Tyler instead.

“This is a mistake,” Haze ultimately pointed out firmly, not taking her eyes off of the unconscious mercenary as the newcomer slowly stepped next to her on her left. She knew that it probably wasn’t her place to question her employer like this, but she couldn’t pass up this chance to speak her mind, either.

“What is?” the man beside her asked in return, his voice cold and professional, not betraying any of his thoughts.

Haze scoffed slightly at the reply, annoyed that her superior was feigning ignorance even now.

“Recruiting him, obviously. That’s what all this is about, isn’t it? Sir?” she answered – more statement than question – finally turning around to face the tall man standing next to her in the process.

As the agent looked up into the grim face of her boss, she felt a twinge of intimidation at his commanding presence, but ultimately she was too adamant to get to the bottom of all this to worry about whether or not this was an appropriate way of addressing the director of SHIELD.

Director Fury regarded the agent in front of him with a stern look, but somehow she had the impression that there was just the slightest hint of amusement hidden in his features.

“So that’s what you think the plan is? That I want to recruit Tyler?” he asked back, the question somehow sounding so sincere, that for a brief moment Haze was left wondering if she had been mistaken, after all, if this was really the truth behind her most recent mission. But then she remembered what she knew, and how she had been taught to trust her own instincts, and nodded resolutely, firm in her conviction.

“Please, sir, don’t take me for an idiot. I _know_ that that’s what the plan is.”

Fury’s one visible eyebrow rose slightly at the response, as he had obviously not expected this level of certainty from the analyst. Apparently he wasn’t ready to tip his hand yet, however, and so he simply replied in a noncommittal way, wanting to hear his subordinate’s point of view.

“What makes you think so, Agent?” He wondered, prompting Haze to explain herself.

She took a deep breath and glanced over at the unconscious man in the med bed briefly before she replied, assuring herself once more that she wasn’t wrong. When she spoke again, she tried to keep her personal dislike for Fury’s tactics to herself, but quickly realised that she wasn’t completely able to.

“Honestly, sir, there are only two things I can think of that you could possibly want from Curtis Tyler. The first one is intel, but if that’s what you were interested in, you could have simply let him go to the Fridge and have him interrogated there. But you didn’t. So that only leaves the second option, which is that you want him to work for you, for SHIELD, but obviously you couldn’t just go and openly recruit him. Not after what he’s done to one of our own; not without bringing Coulson and a whole bunch of other agents up against you.”

Fury’s eyebrow rose once more at this point, but if he had wanted to reply something, he didn’t get the chance, as Haze quickly continued, wanting to finish her explanation before she could change her mind.

“Obviously, though, you didn’t become director of SHIELD for no reason, so you thought of a simple and elegant solution for your problem. You had me fake Tyler’s death, transported him here, somewhere off the books where he can recover and I’m sure that someone is already working on his new identity as we speak. So a few weeks from now, you’ll have your new asset and no one within SHIELD will ever know the truth,” she concluded, the look of disappointment on her face in light of her superior’s actions unmistakable.

Fury nodded approvingly, scrutinising her thoroughly in the process.

“Not bad, Agent Haze, really not bad. Looks like you’ve got everything worked out already,” he remarked while taking a few steps along the glass wall separating them from Tyler, effectively turning his back on the blond agent.

That way he didn’t see the frustrated expression passing over her features for a brief moment, but her next reply made it more than obvious that she did not fully agree with his assessment.

“No, not everything. I mean, while I stand by my opinion that wanting to recruit Tyler is a mistake, because he is a monster and there is no way that he will be reliable, I can actually understand why you might think that he could be a valuable asset. But what I don’t understand is, why you brought me into all of this. You already had Agent Wilson on site, and I’m sure that at least one of the doctors at the hospital was in on the whole act, too, so why did you want me of all people to give Tyler the drug?” she asked exasperatedly, shrugging helplessly.

“I had my reasons,” Director Fury replied cryptically as he turned to look at the agent once more, causing her frustration to finally get the better of her.

Haze let out a disbelieving laugh as she shook her head briefly, then she looked up at her superior with renewed determination.

“Yes, there’s always a reason for your orders; that’s what Agent Wilson said when I asked him back at the hospital, but I’m sorry, sir, that reply is not going to cut it any longer,” she burst out, but quickly regretted her forcefulness as Fury finally replied, his expression less than amused and his voice as authoritative as ever.

“You administered Tyler the Tetrodotoxine B for precisely one reason, Agent Haze, and that is because you were ordered to do so. Because last time I checked, SHIELD was not a democracy and I was still the one in charge. Or did something change since then and everybody just forgot to tell me?” he demanded to know, regarding the agent in front of him with an intimidating look.

Haze needed a moment to realise that this was not a rhetorical question and that the director actually expected her to reply, upon which she instantly shook her head and hurried to answer him.

“No, sir, it didn’t.”

“Didn’t think so.”

They both fell silent after this for a long moment, but despite the fact that she had just been reminded of her position quite impressively, Agent Haze still wasn’t willing to give up on this opportunity to get some answers, and so she swallowed heavily before she spoke again, looking up at her superior imploringly.

“Do you have any siblings, sir?” she asked tentatively, knowing that she had barely any right to ask the director of SHIELD for personal information.

Fury didn’t say anything at first, but when the agent was already certain that he wasn’t going to answer the question, given the disapproving look on his face, he finally did reply, after all, no matter how briefly.

“No.”

“Well, if you’ve read my file, you know that I do,” Haze pointed out, “and I also know what it feels like to lose one of them. Olivia Campbell’s only condition in exchange for her help with finding Coulson’s missing team member was that we were going to take her brother alive, and I promised her that. And then you had me fake his death and force her to watch him die, and with all due respect, sir, I would like to know why I had to be the one to do that.”

The blonde agent kept facing the director with a resolute expression on her face, and it seemed that this time he was more inclined to tell her the truth, judging by the thoughtful look he was giving her.

When Fury finally answered her, however, it was not exactly what Agent Haze had expected.

“You said earlier that you don’t think Tyler can be reliable. Why is that?”

The agent was caught somewhat off guard by the question, but after a brief moment of confusion, she replied nevertheless.

“He’s not loyal to anything or anyone other than himself. He gets hired for a job and he gets it done, but I don’t think you would have gone to all this trouble just to send him on one single mission. I’m sure you’ve already thought of a way to keep him in line, but if you have to use force to make him work for you, that’s not going to go over well. He could sabotage his missions, withhold intel or do who knows what, just to spite you. It’s not going to work. And that’s not even considering the question of whether you actually _want_ someone like him working for you.”

Fury nodded slowly as he seemed to ponder her answer, remaining quiet for a moment.

“Those are all valid concerns,” he finally admitted, but quickly went on to disperse them, “and that is exactly why Tyler is not going to be an independently operating agent. He’ll be an asset – a very useful one, I hope – but he’ll need a good handler or you’re right and this entire operation is nothing but a waste of time and effort.”

“A handler,” Agent Haze repeated, a sinking feeling suddenly in the pit of her stomach.

“Yes,” Fury replied, looking at her intensely, “someone who knows him, how he ticks, and who will make sure that his methods won’t cross a certain line, while always keeping an eye on the mission.”

Haze didn’t know what to think. Her heart was beating loudly in her chest and she threw a brief, almost panicked glance at Tyler’s unconscious form, before she faced Fury again, shaking her head adamantly.

“Sir, if you’re having me in mind for this position, then-”

But the director didn’t even let her finish the sentence before he interrupted her, the tone of his voice instantly quenching Haze’s objections.

“You like field work, don’t you?” he asked, but didn’t wait for her to reply. “You’ve finished the Academy of Communications in the top three of your class, spent your first years at SHIELD safely behind a desk until you had your first outing in the field, which ended in a complete disaster that almost got you and your entire team killed. You know, most people would have gone straight back to their white-collar career after that, but not you. In fact, you’ve kept applying for field work ever since, and according to your superiors, you’re even looking to lead your own team one day. Well, here’s your chance.”

 _This couldn’t be happening._ Agent Haze was doing her best to keep her expression as stoic and professional as she could, but everything inside of her was protesting against Fury’s proposition. Yes, she loved going out into the field, and yes, she was aiming to lead her own team at some point, but not like _this_.

Her eyes went over to the unconscious mercenary once again, and she remembered just how much she had been hoping to be over and done with his case once all of this was over. If she accepted the job Fury was offering her, however, she realised that that might never happen.

“I’m sorry, sir, but I don’t think I’m the right person for this job. Tyler needs a handler, that’s true, but not me,” she finished, shaking her head resolutely.

“Alright,” Fury conceded, “if that’s your decision. Obviously, I can’t force you to take a job like this, but I just hope that you enjoyed your latest stint back behind a desk, monitoring a tracking device, because that’s the only kind of work you’ll be doing for… let’s say the next decade, if you can’t bring yourself to change your mind on this.”

His words hung in the air heavily and Haze quickly realised that he was not joking.

“Extortion, sir, _really_?” she asked in defeat, knowing that the director wasn’t giving her much of a choice in the matter. She was fine with still doing the occasional desk job, like when she had been tasked with monitoring Skye’s tracker, but she couldn’t even imagine the next ten years with nothing else to look forward to.

“Think of it more as ‘management by motivation’,” Fury replied almost lightheartedly, obviously realising that his threat was having the desired effect. “And thanks to Agent Ward’s… efforts, it’s not as if you will have to start your new assignment tomorrow,” he added, glancing over to the man lying in the medical bed. “Considering the state Tyler is in, it will be weeks or maybe even a few months until he is fully recovered, meaning that you can return to your normal duties until then. There’s just one thing you’ll have to take care of sooner, something you got wrong in your earlier conclusions.”

“And what’s that?” Haze asked wearily, not really caring anymore. After all, it wasn’t as if this job could get any worse at this point.

“Nobody’s working on Tyler’s new identity yet; I figured you would want to do that yourself, considering that you two are basically going to be partners soon.”

Agent Haze was starting to get the feeling that the director was enjoying this situation far too much, but as she didn’t want to risk overstepping her boundaries again, she swallowed any objections she was about to make and simply nodded with a dejected sigh.

“Of course, sir, I’ll get on it.” It wasn’t as if she had any other choice, anyway. “Is there anything else? Because it’s been a long couple of days, and if this was it–”

“Actually that’s what I wanted to ask you, Agent,” Fury replied, a cold expression on his face once again. “I’ve received a first briefing about what happened during the rescue mission and I’m sure Agent Coulson is going to file a full report soon as well; I just want to know if there is anything you’d like to add, anything that didn’t make it into the case files.”

Haze hesitated for a moment, thinking back to the discussion she had had with Agent Coulson about the possibility that the Clairvoyant might be a member of SHIELD. Obviously she knew that this was something Director Fury should be aware of, but at the same time she didn’t want to break the promise she had given Coulson about keeping this information quiet.

“No, sir, I don’t have anything to add,” she ultimately replied, “but once you’ve read Agent Coulson’s report, I think you might want to ask him the same question.” It was the most diplomatic solution the agent could think of right now, because as much as she didn’t want to betray Coulson’s trust, she couldn’t utterly lie to the director of SHIELD, either.

It probably wasn’t the answer Fury had expected, but in the end he nodded after all, obviously realising that Haze was feeling an obligation to the other agent she didn’t want to infringe on.

“Alright, looks like I will do that then,” he agreed, scrutinising the blond woman in front of him thoroughly.

Haze wasn’t quite sure how to interpret her superior’s reaction, but all things considered, she figured that she hadn’t fallen completely out of his good graces just yet. But then again, in light of what he was going to have her do, she wasn’t so sure whether that was really a good thing, either.

“You’re dismissed for now, Agent Haze. Agent Wilson is waiting upstairs to take you back to the Hub, where you will resume your normal duties for the moment and wait for your transfer orders. He will also be acting as your liaison from now on. Any more questions?”

“No, sir,” Haze replied without hesitation, fully aware that another plea to get someone else for this job wouldn’t be all too well received.

Before she left the room to head back upstairs, she took another long look at Curtis Tyler’s unconscious form, already dreading the moment when he would wake up and start his recovery. She remembered the conversation she had had with Skye just a few hours earlier, about how SHIELD seemed to like recruiting criminals with a specialised skill set, but while she had never had a problem with this tactic so far, she felt almost sick at the thought of having to work with someone like the mercenary in front of her.

Even after she had left the scene and was making her way back towards the elevator to leave this place, there was only one thought in her mind at the prospect of her next mission, no matter how long it would be until then.

_This was a mistake._

* * *

 

“So what exactly are you guys going to do with that woman, Hannah?” Skye asked as she was walking next to Coulson, both of them making their way towards the cargo hold of the Bus.

“It’s called the index asset evaluation and intake process,” the agent began to explain, a look of disbelief growing on Skye’s features at the ridiculously complicated name.

“So… what? You talk to her and see if she has powers?”

“Basically, yes,” Coulson admitted, clearly fully aware that this was a perfect example of SHIELD’s tendency for absurd amounts of bureaucracy. “This time you obviously have to take a back seat, Skye, but the next time we’ll have the opportunity to make contact with a gifted individual, I want you to pay close attention. I think this is something you’ll become really good at one day.”

“Well, it’s not like I haven’t done this before,” Skye pointed out, thinking back to the first time she had run into the team. “I found Mike Peterson before you did.”

“Yes, and remember how that went?” Coulson objected.

Skye cringed visibly. She knew of course that the agent was right; even though they had been able to save Mike in the end and he was on his way to becoming a member of SHIELD himself, it had only been thanks to Coulson’s intervention that the situation hadn’t gotten completely out of control and that Ace hadn’t lost his father.

“Okay, point taken,” she agreed just as they were making their way down the spiral staircase inside the cargo hold. “I just… I really wish that I could come with you guys and be there when you talk to Hannah. I mean, after what she’s been through, that particle accelerator explosion killing four of her friends with her maybe being responsible, plus her suddenly having powers, she’s going to be terrified. Imagine her reaction when she sees a bunch of SHIELD agents swooping in to… index asset… whatever her.”

“Index asset evaluation and intake,” Coulson supplied, a faint smile on his lips at Skye’s problems with the designation.

“Yeah, well, exactly my point. That needs a better name, less I.R.S., more… better. I mean, if I were in her position, I would freak out if someone told me that that’s what they had come for,” she emphasised, but then her expression lightened up again as she suddenly thought of something. “How about ‘the welcome wagon’? That’s got a good ring to it, right?”

Coulson looked at her silently for a moment, but when he finally replied, he chose to ignore her suggestion and instead focused on the mission at hand.

“I’m sure agents May and Ward and myself will be able to handle the situation. Miss Hutchins has been through a lot and we aren’t looking to make it worse, but we also have to make sure that nobody else gets hurt. And yes, that includes Miss Hutchins herself,” he stated firmly, obviously being done with the topic.

At this point Fitz and Simmons interrupted the conversation with news of their investigation into the particle accelerator explosion, which Skye only listened to half-heartedly. Apparently they suspected a link between Hannah’s newfound abilities and the accident, and Coulson encouraged them to look further into it, but the young hacker was more interested in the emotional fallout this was having on the safety inspector than the science behind it.

After the two lab rats had returned to their natural habitat, Skye turned to Coulson once more, involuntarily crossing her arms in front of her chest, as the topic was making her slightly uncomfortable.

“So… you’re going to take Ward with you after all?” She had heard about the specialist having been suspended after Tyler’s death, but apparently May’s argument from last night, that they would need everyone available on this mission, had ultimately convinced their team’s leader to reconsider his decision.

“Yes, he’s still on probation, but in a delicate situation like this I won’t risk innocent lives to prove a point. Batesville is a tight-knit community, the people there are rattled, and considering the most recent incident, the explosion at the gas station, we really need to bring Miss Hutchins in quickly and – if possible – quietly. That’s not a two-man job.”

“Well, if you want Hannah to trust you, I guess you can just let _him_ do the talking. Just make him look like the hero coming to her rescue, and she’s going to fall for it immediately,” Skye suggested, her anger over Ward’s behaviour still running deep.

“ _Skye_ –”, Coulson began in a tone of voice that clearly suggested he was going to start a lecture about her having to forgive the specialist, but the young woman just wasn’t in the mood to hear it right now.

“Don’t, just… _don’t_ , okay? I know I’ll have to figure things out with Ward eventually, and I will. You just go and concentrate on saving that woman before she or anyone else gets hurt, alright?”

Coulson hesitated a moment, obviously considering whether or not he should comply with Skye’s request and stay out of the dispute between her and her S.O., but in the end he clearly decided to do her the favour.

“Alright.”

 

* * *

 

It was a few hours later when Skye stood in the same spot in the cargo hold once again, looking down at her team as they were returning from their mission to bring in Hannah Hutchins.

But even though they had obviously succeeded in their main objective, as the blond safety inspector was among them, the second part, that nobody was supposed to get hurt, had obviously gone out the window at some point.

Hannah Hutchins was unconscious in Ward’s arms as he carried her out of the back of the car and Skye’s breath caught in her throat as she realised the blood covering the specialist’s hands and parts of his clothes. She just couldn’t tell whether it was his or hers.

 **To be continued…**  


	39. Some Kind of Monster

Skye felt as if she couldn’t move.

Right now she wasn’t even aware of the cargo hold around her any longer, as from the instant Agent Ward had pulled the unconscious Hannah Hutchins out of the car, she had been completely unable to take her eyes off of them, her mind racing back two days ago to when it had been her whom the specialist had been carrying to safety.

For a moment it was as if she could still smell the dust in the air of Talos’ hideout around her as the memories from her rescue and the present seemed to blur into each other, and she shivered involuntarily as the constant cold of the abandoned compound seemed to creep up on her once more.

Even the blood on Ward’s hands was the same as before, but now it was the one detail that pulled Skye at least far enough back into reality to speak up.

“What… what happened?” she asked haltingly, her throat feeling as dry as parchment.

It wasn’t Ward who replied to her, though, as the specialist was entirely focused on his current objective right now to take care of Hannah, quickly moving past his rookie and up the spiral staircase without giving her more than a brief look, his expression serious. Instead it was Coulson, who answered her question as he now stepped next to the young woman, his eyes following Ward just as Skye’s did.

“You remember how I said we wanted to take Miss Hutchins in quietly?” he asked with a small sigh.

“Yeah,” Skye replied hesitantly, glancing up at the agent in the process.

“Well, that didn’t work.”

 

* * *

 

_A few hours earlier:_

Ward realised that something was wrong, the moment Hannah Hutchins’ house came into view. There was a whole mob gathered in front of it, including police cars on the scene, and he instantly had a feeling that the extraction they had planned would not go over as easily as Coulson had hoped.

As soon as their car came to a halt, he and the other two agents were outside in a second, with him and Coulson approaching the front porch, where a blonde woman, Hannah, was standing, looking at the people in front of her with an upset look on her face.

Three police officers were keeping the crowd at bay, with two of them positioned on the sidewalk to stop anyone from getting closer, while a third was guarding the woman on the porch.

As the SHIELD team approached, the officers in the front waved them through instantly, obviously having been informed of their arrival and being visibly relieved that someone else had come to sort out the situation. Ward and Coulson went directly towards Miss Hutchins, while May took position on the front lawn behind the police officers, keeping her eyes on the agitated people in the street.

As Ward was following his team leader, he couldn’t help but think how insane this entire situation was. One look at the distressed woman in front of him told him that whether or not she was indeed responsible for the explosions at the plant where she had worked as a safety inspector or the one at the gas station yesterday, she had not caused them willingly or ever intended to hurt anyone.

However, the people who had gathered in front of her house to haul accusations at her didn’t seem to realise that, or simply didn’t care, as they continued their angry shouting. It did kind of surprised Ward, though, that none of them seemed to consider the possibility that if Miss Hutchins was really responsible for all the destruction they were accusing her off, upsetting her now might not exactly be the best idea, as she could potentially turn against them at any moment. Or maybe they were just thinking themselves safe in numbers, a belief Ward knew to be completely unfounded should they really be dealing with a gifted person here.

“Officer, is there anything you can do to get these people to disperse?” Coulson now asked as he walked up the steps to the front porch, addressing the policeman standing there directly.

“Been trying, but it’s a free country,” the man replied, prompting a slight shake of the head from Ward in response.

Of course he knew that the officer was right, but at the same time he was well aware that a situation like this was potentially the most dangerous thing they could have walked into. They still had no idea what their target was capable of, and with a riled-up crowd watching their every move, their chances of getting her out of here quickly and quietly were decreasing by the second.

Coulson seemed to have decided now that there was no point in arguing with the police officer about whether or not he had the authority to remove the people from the street, and so he finally turned to the woman they had come here for.

“Miss Hutchins, I’m Agent Coulson,” he introduced himself, causing Ward to focus on the blond woman now as well. “We specialise in strange occurrences like the ones you’ve encountered.”

“You’ve come to lock me up?” Hannah asked, both her choked up voice and the tear stains on her cheeks clearly betraying the fact that she had been crying.

Considering her situation, Ward would have already been feeling sympathetic towards the blond woman, but for some reason, the desperate and even guilty look in her eyes reminded him so much of Skye during their conversation the other night, that the specialist felt an almost painful desire to calm her down and make sure that she knew the team wasn’t here to hurt her.

“To talk,” he told her honestly and as reassuringly as he could, but Hannah’s reaction was not exactly what he had expected.

“Well, what good will that do?” she asked dejectedly, but before Ward or Coulson had the chance to reply anything, a raw egg suddenly hit the front door of the house, followed by more angry shouts from the people gathered in the street, calling either for Hannah’s arrest or for her to leave town.

The specialist turned around angrily at this point, what little patience he had had with the citizens of this town completely gone by now. Of course this was still a free country, but that didn’t mean he had to tolerate these people interrupting a SHIELD operation.

“Officers, get those people back,” he demanded resolutely, but the two policemen never had the chance to follow his instructions, as the screeching sound of a car speeding up suddenly pierced the air. A second later, one of the empty police cars that were standing on the other side of the road raced straight towards the front of the house, right through the crowd gathered in front of it.

Ward could hear Agent May shouting at the people to move and get out of the way, but as one of them, a man who had been particularly vocal about his opinion towards Hannah, wasn’t reacting quickly enough, Coulson hurried towards him and pushed him out of the way just before the car could hit him, both of them landing safely on the ground.

Ward remained right at the front porch the whole time, gesturing for Hannah to stay where she was, while he kept his eyes on the chaotic situation in front of him. Luckily, neither Coulson or May, nor any of the civilians seemed to have been injured, but that didn’t mean that the situation was even remotely resolved.

Quite the contrary, actually, as the specialist quickly had to realise.

“It’s her! That freak just tried to kill us!” a woman from the crowd suddenly shouted, and Ward really wished that someone were here to calm her down, but as it was, he was still at the porch, with Coulson only returning there just now, while May was still helping some of the people that had leapt out of the way of the police car back to their feet, leaving nobody to intervene as the angry and frightened woman kept screaming.

“You all saw what she did with that car, that’s not natural!” she now announced loudly, quickly provoking similar shouts from the people around her.

Ward couldn’t pay them any attention, however, as the police officer who had been supposed to protect Hannah suddenly pulled out his gun and aimed it at the terrified woman, obviously believing as well that she was to blame for what had just happened.

The situation was increasingly spiralling out-of-control, but for Ward that only meant that he had to keep even more of a level head in response if he wanted to keep things from getting even worse.

“Easy, officer,” he instructed gently as he walked up the few steps to the porch, approaching the armed man carefully, “put the gun down.”

Hannah had started to back away from the policeman as soon as she had noticed the gun aimed at her, her hands raised and her expression almost panicked, but she now quickly realised that the situation behind her wasn’t any friendlier, either.

“She’s not a human, she’s some kind of freak, some kind of _monster_!” a man from the crowd was shouting loudly now, with others around him chiming in just as angrily.

“Leave me alone,” Hannah pretty much whimpered, but Ward wasn’t entirely sure if it was directed at the police officer still aiming a gun at her, or at the riled up crowd that seemed only seconds away from calling for her head.

“Miss Hutchins, please come down,” Coulson tried to reach the blond woman again, obviously concerned as well that she had caused the car to drive into the crowd and about what else she might do accidentally, but Ward was still surprised that from all the people losing their cool right now, his superior was addressing Hannah and not any of the others.

He himself had finally managed to get the police officer to lower his gun again, but as he looked back around to Coulson, Hannah and the people behind them, he suddenly noticed not just one, but two more firearms out in the open, causing him to pull out his own night-night gun in an instant.

Because while one of the weapons he had become aware of was in the hands of Agent May – another tranquilliser gun – the other was in the possession of the man who had just accused Hannah of not even being a human being, and Ward could instantly tell that this was in fact a very real gun.

“Put it down,” the specialist instructed harshly, aiming his own weapon at the civilian without hesitation. The other people in the crowd were backing away from the armed man, but so far he didn’t seem willing to give up his position.

Hannah, who was completely petrified with fear by now, just kept looking from Ward to the man in the crowd and back again, not knowing what to do anymore.

“It wasn’t me,” she simply declared helplessly, as Coulson stepped in front of her, shielding her from the weapon aimed at her.

“Calm down, we’re not gonna let anyone hurt you,” he replied silently, making sure that her would-be attacker didn’t have a clear shot at the blond woman.

“I said, put it down!” Ward repeated once again, causing the man in the street to lose focus on whom exactly he was trying to aim at.

“No! How can you protect her?” he asked incredulously as he shifted his attention towards the specialist, his fingers trembling under the pressure. “Look at what she di–”, the man started to defend his actions, but didn’t even get to finish the sentence as he was suddenly interrupted by the sound of two gunshots, followed by a loud thud and a lot of screaming as most of the people gathered in the street either crouched down on the ground instinctively or ran away to take cover.

Ward’s gaze shifted around the scene repeatedly, but even then he needed a moment to figure out what exactly had happened.

Even though the two sounds had been very close together, he was sure that the civilian’s gun had gone off first, most likely by accident, considering his riled up condition, quickly followed by May’s night-night gun, as the specialist had taken the attacker out, causing the man to slump to the ground in a heap.

At first Ward thought that the initial shot hadn’t hit anyone, as neither he, nor Coulson or Hannah seemed to be injured, but then he noticed the police officer behind them clutching his side, swaying noticeably. His uniform was quickly stained red, but Ward was by his side in an instant, lowering him to the ground carefully.

“Call an ambulance!” he shouted to the officer’s colleagues as he started to apply pressure to the wound. Despite his injury, though, the policeman was still fully awake, giving the specialist hope that no organs had been hit by the bullet. He had even found an exit wound, which meant that the projectile couldn’t cause any more damage inside, and that the only important thing right now was to stop the bleeding.

That task was soon being taken over by one of the other two officers, however, while the third was securing the unconscious shooter, giving Ward the opportunity to get back to the mission at hand.

“The shot went clean through,” he told Coulson as he stood back up now, wiping off the blood on his hands on his clothes in the process, “the officer’s going to need medical attention, obviously, but as far as I can tell, he’s going to be fine.”

The older agent was visibly relieved at the news, but Hannah, who was still standing next to him, hardly seemed to have heard what Ward had just said and was instead getting increasingly agitated.

“Oh, God, why is this happening?” she asked no one in particular, anxiously running her hands through her hair in the process. “I didn’t want this, I _never_ wanted this,” she emphasised, tears streaming down her face once more at this point.

“Please, come down, Miss Hutchins,” Coulson almost pleaded with her by now, but it didn’t seem as if his efforts were even reaching the distraught woman any longer. “Everything will be alright. The officer will be fine, and so will you,” he promised, but just as he had finished the sentence, the sound of May’s night-night gun could suddenly be heard once more, followed this time by Hannah’s unconscious body hitting the floor.

“Time to go!” The female agent announced, looking at her team mates with a resolute expression.

 

* * *

 

After she had gotten the gist of what had happened on the mission from Coulson, Skye simply couldn’t stop herself any longer, her feet carrying her out of the cargo hold and up into the second level of the Bus, towards the small holding cell generally just known as ‘the cage’. She had been staying clear of the room for the past few days, not wanting to even imagine herself in there, but now she had to make sure how their guest was doing.

And while Coulson had assured her that Ward had indeed not been injured during Hannah’s extraction, Skye had to admit that she would actually feel better if she were able to confirm that for herself.

The door to the cage was open as Skye approached it, but without even thinking about it, she stopped dead in her tracks before she could step over the threshold, unwilling to go inside. She still had a good look into the room, though, where she saw Ward accommodating Hannah on a simple mattress, making sure she was comfortable until she woke up again.

The hacker wanted to say something, had actually just opened her mouth to do so, but the words were suddenly stuck in her throat as she kept looking at the scene in front of her, reality overlapping with her memories once again. Because once again it wasn’t Hannah whom she was seeing, but herself, lying on a mattress inside a small cell in Talos’ hideout, unconscious after Jack had injected her with some kind of knockout drug.

The young woman’s hands were clenched into fists as she stood completely motionless, grabbing her sleeves tightly as she was overwhelmed by the vividness of her memories.

It was the sound of her own name which ultimately pulled her back to the here and now as Ward had finally become aware of her, but considering their last conversation, the specialist obviously didn’t know what else to say to her.

As Skye didn’t, either, she needed a moment to come up with anything to reply, but in the end she just decided to act as professionally as she could under the circumstances.

“How is she?” she wondered, a part of her actually taking note of the fact that over the past few days this question must have been asked in regards to her countless times.

“Scared, confused, but physically she’s fine,” the specialist replied, and judging by the way his eyes lingered on her for a long moment, Skye figured that he was aware of the similarities between her and their newest guest as well.

“Yeah, I guess I can relate,” the hacker admitted, realising that there was no point in denying the obvious. “And in a few hours Hannah’s going to wake up… in _here_ …,” she added, looking around the dark walls of the small room warily.

At this point Ward slowly stood back up and walked towards the door, though, his earlier hesitation gone by now.

“Yes, you’re probably right and the room might scare her for a moment, but she’ll be safe in here and we from her, and once she’s awake, Coulson will talk to her and explain everything. All the bad stuff Hannah has been through? That’s over now. She’s safe now, she just…” at this point the specialist trailed off for a moment, his eyes resting on Skye intently.

The young woman felt as if her S.O., who was standing right in front of her by now, was about to reach out to her, but in the end he didn’t move, leaving her unsure about whether or not she would have shied away from him again.

“…she just has to realise it.” Ward’s voice was sounding so sincere that Skye was having a hard time remembering her anger at him, but ultimately it came back to her, causing her to question his assertions.

“So you really think it’s going to be that easy? After everything? Just tell her she’ll be fine and that’s it? Do you even actually believe that Coulson is going to tell her the whole truth?” she wondered, waiting for the specialist’s reaction.

“Yes, I do,” Ward finally replied. “Even if it’s going to be difficult for her to hear, he’s not going to lie to her. Never again.”

There was a long moment of silence between the two at this point, as Skye scrutinised her S.O. thoroughly, careful not to let her heart get the better of her and forget what had happened between them too quickly.

“We’re… still talking about Hannah here, right?” she finally asked with a faint smile on her lips as she looked up at Ward, obviously knowing better.

“Yeah, of course we are,” he answered, nevertheless, putting on an obviously fake stern expression in return. “Seriously, though, Skye, Fitz and Simmons will figure out what’s going on with her,” he said, indicating Hannah briefly before he finally stepped out of the cage and locked the door behind him, “and SHIELD is going to help her get through this. The worst part is over now,” he assured his rookie as they both started to make their way back into the direction of the command centre.

As they were walking away, neither of them noticed the tall figure standing at the other end of the corridor behind them, which was gone again a moment later, leaving no trace behind.

**To be continued…**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A rather short chapter this time, I know, but I wanted to update again before the weekend, as I’m not going to have much time then and didn’t want to leave you waiting any longer.   
> As you’ve noticed, I’ve started bringing the events of “Repairs” into the story, something I’ve been meaning to do for a while, and I hope it makes for an interesting backdrop for Skye and Ward to work on their issues, which is going to happen soon, I promise!


	40. I Just Need You To Trust Me

They were back in the air by now and Skye was in the lab with Fitz and Simmons, watching the live feed from the cage on one of the monitors, where their guest was showing first signs of waking up, while the two scientists were busy analysing Hannah’s vitals.

She would have much rather been in the command centre with Coulson, May and Ward, but as she had gone there together with her S.O. earlier, Coulson had immediately made it clear that she wasn’t part of this mission and therefore didn’t have any reason to be there.

A part of her obviously understood his reasoning, but that didn’t stop the young woman from feeling utterly useless right now, like she was nothing more than a burden to her team. She had been fine with not going on field missions again for a while, but to be kept completely out of the loop like this, that was something Skye had not expected.

She knew of course that Coulson was simply concerned about her and didn’t want her own recovery to be interrupted by the current mission, but it wasn’t as if she didn’t worry about what was going on with Hannah, just because she wasn’t allowed to take part in any of the ‘grown-ups’ discussions. Or help with the case in any way, for that matter.

To see how everyone else around her had their purpose and was contributing to the mission only reminded the hacker of how fragile her team had to be thinking she was at the moment, which in turn made her wonder whether they were actually right or not.

It wasn’t exactly a pleasant thought, and Skye would have wished that she could deny it, even if only to herself, but as she continued to watch the video feed in front of her in silence, she soon found that she couldn’t. Because once Hannah was finally completely awake, and it quickly became obvious how terrified she was at her new, intimidating surroundings, Skye realised that she had to focus on something else for a while if she wanted to keep her own not so different memories from resurfacing.

“So, did you guys find anything?” she asked as she turned around to Fitz and Simmons, who were still working on one of the computers in the lab.

“Nothing unusual yet, no,” Simmons replied, glancing back at Skye for a moment before she focused on the screen in front of her again. “Hannah’s blood results have been entirely normal, and so far the readings of her brainwaves are completely ordinary as well. Maybe we’ll get more conclusive results once Agent Coulson goes in to talk to her, but so far I can only tell you that she is upset.”

“You need a computer for that?” Skye wondered with a raised eyebrow. “Of course she’s upset. The last thing Hannah remembers is a mob in front of her house and people trying to shoot her. Now she’s been knocked out, brought here against her will and just woke up all alone in a tiny dark cell with no idea what’s going on. She’s terrified,” the hacker finished her observation.

She had turned back to the monitor showing the interior of the cage once more, so she didn’t notice the concerned glance Fitz and Simmons were exchanging behind her back at this point.

“And I can’t even _do_ anything to help her,” Skye sighed, her frustration growing. “Coulson isn’t letting me anywhere near Hannah, so all I can do right now is hang out down here and watch you two work,” she complained, briefly waving in her friends’ general direction before she went back to watching the screen.

The tone of her voice was making it more than evident how upset she was about the current situation, finally prompting Simmons to abandon her work for the moment.

“Well, I’m sure that Agent Coulson is only doing what he deems best for your recovery by keeping you away from this mission, Skye,” she tried to placate the team’s rookie, prompting Fitz to quickly chime in as well.

“Jemma is right. After what you’ve been through, Skye, it makes perfect sense that Coulson wants you to take it easy for a while.”

“Yeah, well, I _am_ taking it easy,” the hacker replied exasperatedly. “I’m fine with not going into the field for now – even though, if I had been there earlier, maybe I could have done _something_ to prevent that police officer from getting shot – but how is feeling this useless going to help me get better?” she ultimately asked, not really expecting an answer from either of the two scientists. “Not that he seems to care much about how I feel about any of this…”

Skye sighed dejectedly once more while Fitz and Simmons exchanged another look, obviously trying to come up with a way of improving the young woman’s bad mood. Ultimately it was the bio-chemist who seemed to have an idea first, as she suddenly walked over to an open case full of technical equipment and retrieved one of Fitz’s drones from it.

“ _Happy_ ,” she announced optimistically as she handed the machine to the engineer, causing a confused frown to appear on Skye’s face.

The young woman needed a second to realise that that was the drone’s actual name, and not some kind of statement about her current emotional condition. During that short moment, she watched as Fitz placed the delicate machine on some kind of docking station on the holo table, obviously activating it.

“Particle accelerator data loading,” the scientist narrated his actions absentmindedly while he entered a few commands on the table’s display. A few seconds later, a holographic projection of the particle accelerator Hannah Hutchins had been responsible for as a safety inspector appeared above the glass surface, momentarily taking Skye’s mind off her current situation.

Every since she had joined Coulson’s team, she had been fascinated by the incredible technology SHIELD had at its disposal and their hologram devices were among her absolutely favourite gadgets so far.

She stared at the blue tinged visual with a genuine smile on her face, watching as Fitz started dismantling the complicated looking machine, until she ultimately reached inside herself and pulled out a small round part of the hologram she couldn’t even begin to identify.

She had not anticipated the engineer’s protective nature, however, as far as his toys were concerned, and flinched visibly as he suddenly slapped her on the fingers lightly, scolding her curious behaviour.

“No! You do _not_ touch that!” he commanded decisively, but was immediately cut short by Jemma, who was glaring at him with an incredulous expression now.

“ _Fitz!_ ” she protested, reminding her lab partner with that single word that they were trying to make Skye feel useful right now and not push her away even further.

The engineer looked from Simmons’ disapproving gaze over to the young hacker, who still had a slightly shocked look on her face in response to him lashing out at her like that, and finally realised how awfully he had just been behaving.

“I’m…. I’m sorry, Skye, I didn’t mean to…” he began awkwardly, but quickly gathered himself again and went on in a more collected tone. “What I obviously meant to say was, you usually need two semesters minimum of holographic engineering at the academy before you get to work with this kind of holographic device, but…” Fitz hesitated briefly at this point, as if a part of him wanted to stop him from saying what he was going to say next. In the end, however, he continued anyway, clearly caring more about the young hacker than about any of his valuable machines. “But I’m sure Jemma and I can show you a few basic operations. Right, Jemma?” he asked, glancing over at his lab partner with a faint smile, clearly hoping that she would appreciate his efforts to rectify his mistake and chime in accordingly. Which she did.

“ _Right_ ,” the biochemist quickly agreed, before she focused back on Skye, her demeanour completely professional once more. “Using this machine is actually a bit more complicated than it looks, Skye, but I’m sure that with some patience you’ll be able to learn some of its more rudimentary functions very quickly, and –”

However, the young woman was not exactly in a very patient mood right now, and so she just rolled her eyes and stepped back from the holo table, her earlier fascination gone entirely.

“Just forget it, guys, alright? I didn't go to your stupid SHIELD Hogwarts or whatever, so I don’t get to play with the cool stuff. I get it,” she insisted, but couldn’t quite keep her frustration from showing. “I’m just gonna go back upstairs and… I don’t know… find something to do on my own computer, I guess. My boring, old, flat computer.”

As she turned away from the two scientists, though, Skye’s eyes fell on the monitor showing the cage once more and she noticed to her surprise that Coulson and May were in there by now, talking to their terrified prisoner. For a moment she was tempted to stay in the lab after all and keep watching the feed, but then she suddenly realised something else. Because if the two agents were with Hannah, it meant that the only person on this plane whom she might be able to convince of giving her a chance to get involved in this mission was alone right now, most likely watching the same feed as her in the command centre.

“Or I’m gonna go talk to Ward,” Skye muttered quietly, more to herself than to Fitz and Simmons, but even though her eyes were still fixated on the monitor, neither of the two scientist apparently made the connection that the young woman was only thinking about their current mission at the moment.

“Well,” Simmons began slowly, clearly trying to sound supportive, “I think that’s a very good idea. You two have to talk about your issues eventually, and I have to say, you’re handling this situation very maturely by giving Ward another chance to explain himself.”

“What?” Skye replied immediately, taken off guard by Jemma’s take on the situation. Just because her anger and disappointment at her S.O. had calmed down enough for her to talk to him again, it didn’t mean that she was ready to put all of that behind her yet, so she shook her head decisively as she continued.

“No, that’s not what I meant. It’s just… if Ward’s not in there,” she began explaining, pointing at the interior of the cage on the screen, “then that means he’s still in the command centre. And whatever he, Coulson and May discussed earlier that Coulson didn’t want me to hear, Ward’s the one who can tell me,” she declared optimistically and quickly made her way out of the lab without waiting for a reply from either of the two scientists this time.

As Skye had left the room, Simmons sighed audibly and turned to Fitz, disappointment shining in her eyes all too clearly.

“‘ _You do not touch that!’_ Really, Fitz?”

“I wasn’t thinking, alright?” the engineer quickly defended his abrasive behaviour. For a moment he seemed noticeably guilty for shouting at the young hacker just a few moments ago, but then his expression suddenly changed as he continued in a considerably calmer tone. “And, anyway, don’t you think she prefers us acting normal around her? The last thing Skye wants is for us to pamper her right now.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sure she’d _much_ rather have you shout at her for touching one of your precious machines,” Simmons replied dismissively, a disbelieving expression on her face as she concentrated back on the hologram in front of her.

“Yeah, well, if Skye’s already talking to Ward again after what _he_ did, I’m pretty sure _I’m_ going to be fine,” Fitz muttered in response, as he, too, turned back to his work.

Simmons gave him a brief side glance in return and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like “ _men_ ” under her breath, but other than that she showed no reaction to the engineers words, a part of her already wondering how Skye’s talk with her S.O. would go.

 

* * *

 

_“I apologize for bringing you in that way. Things were escalating. It was for everyone's safety.”_

Ward was standing in front of the computer table in the command centre of the plane, his arms crossed absentmindedly as he watched Coulson talk to Hannah Hutchins, trying to gain her trust. He knew that the blond woman had to be terrified after everything that had happened to her, both back at her house and before, but as he also knew what a talent his superior had for connecting with people, the specialist was sure that if anyone was up to the task of reaching her right now, it was him.

He himself had never been what one might call a ‘people person’, but while he had never been particularly sad about that, either, he did sometimes envy others for the ease with which they could gain someone’s sympathy and trust. It was a skill he had vastly improved over the years, obviously, mostly as part of his undercover training with SHIELD, but to win someone over simply by being who he was, that was just something he had never been good at. And every time he had somehow managed to form such a connection after all, he had also found a way to ultimately destroy in again, just proving to him that in the end he was better off alone.

_“Wherever I go, things turn bad.”_

They were Hannah’s words, but somehow they almost felt like his own as Ward kept watching the blond woman in the video feed. He didn’t even exactly know why, maybe because her situation was slightly reminiscent of Skye’s, which in turn brought back his guilty conscience, but for some reason Ward felt an incredibly protective urge towards Hannah and was more than glad that Coulson was being entirely honest with her. After all, he had just learned the hard way that lying to someone to protect them from the truth could easily cause a lot more harm than good and he wasn’t willing to repeat that. Not if he could help it.

 _“Because of me, they're gone. I killed them,”_ Hannah sobbed as she and Coulson talked about the men who had died in the explosion of the particle accelerator, but Ward’s attention was suddenly distracted from the image in front of him, so he didn’t catch what his superior replied in return.

“She’s blaming herself for what happened, isn’t she?”

Skye’s voice asked from behind him, startling the specialist and causing him to turn around to find the young woman leaning against the entrance to the command centre.

“Skye…” he replied awkwardly, caught off guard for a moment by her appearance, but then he quickly focused again on the situation at hand and glanced back at the monitor in front of him as he continued. “Yeah, it seems that way. Coulson’s explaining to her what’s going on, how she got here, including that May took her out and everything else we know so far, but I’m not so sure that Hannah really understands what’s happening to her.”

“Well, neither do Fitz and Simmons,” the hacker replied matter-of-factly as she now stepped forward to stand next to Ward, her eyes glancing up at him briefly before she turned back towards the large screen on the wall. “They’re still trying to figure out what caused the explosion of the particle accelerator, but so far they haven’t found anything unusual about Hannah.”

Ward fully turned his attention away from the video feed at this point to focus on Skye, but without entirely knowing what to say at first.

Despite the fact that this was the second time that the young woman had come to talk to him today, it was still clear to him that she hadn’t completely forgiven him yet after his confession yesterday. After all, how could she have so soon, considering the way he’d messed up?

He had let her down in the worst possible way and hadn’t even had the guts to be honest about it to her from the start, so of course it would take more than a weak apology from him to fix this rift in their relationship.

But nevertheless, he was more than relieved that the young woman had at least stopped avoiding him entirely and even if they were only talking about professional matters right now, that was still a lot more than he could have hoped for just a few hours ago.

“Well, whatever it is that’s happening to her, we’re safe out here,” he told Skye, wanting to make sure that the young woman knew she wasn’t in any kind of danger again. “Apparently Fitz installed some kind of magnetic shielding in the cage after what happened to Simmons with that weird alien disease, so there aren’t going to be any more incidents like what happened at Hannah’s house until we drop her off at the Fridge.”

Skye’s brow furrowed noticeably at the specialist’s explanation, as she clearly didn’t find his words quite as reassuring as he had hoped for.

“But what about Coulson and May?” she asked in return, obviously concerned. “They’re in there with her, so if Hannah can’t control what’s going on with her–” she began, but was quickly cut off by her S.O.

“Don’t worry, Coulson can take care of himself,” he assured her, only to add, “and, well, if he can’t, May will. That’s the other reason she’s in there, aside from Coulson not wanting to hide anything from Hannah.”

“The Cavalry, huh?” Skye replied slowly, her eyes fixed on the female agent on the screen at this point.

“Yeah,” Ward agreed before he fell silent for a moment.

A part of him kept telling him that this was the perfect opportunity to apologise to the young woman next to him once more, to assure her how much he regretted both, not having enough faith in her before and not being honest to her about it after her rescue, but at the same time he couldn’t help but be afraid that she would turn away from him again, just like she had done yesterday.

The fact that she was here with him right now, talking amiably, was obviously a rather promising indication that she was willing to give him another chance, but just as Ward was finally about to bring up the difficult subject, he remembered how Skye had pulled her hand away from him the day before, just as he had tried to reach for her, and the words suddenly caught in his throat.

It was in that moment, however, that he also remembered something else, something Fitz had said to him just before they had found out the truth about Skye’s disappearance, and the specialist suddenly realised with frightening clarity that the engineer had been right.

As far as his rookie was concerned, he really _was_ a coward. He always had been.

“I think I should be in there,” Skye announced all of a sudden, interrupting Ward’s thoughts and dispelling all intentions he had had of bringing up their personal issues right now.

“What? Why?” he asked instead, fully focused once more. “You do know that Coulson doesn’t want you to get involved in this mission, right?” he wondered, one eyebrow raised as he looked down at the hacker.

“Yeah, I know,” Skye merely replied, not showing any indication to say anything else on this topic.

“So, I take it you’re not taking his ‘no’ for an answer,” the specialist prompted, a slight hint of amusement in his voice. After all, he wasn’t at all surprised that his rookie was too stubborn to follow their team leader’s instructions, no matter how well intended they had been.

“Nope,” she declared resolutely, crossing her arms in front of her chest in the process. “I mean, I know that Coulson just wants to protect me, and I _am_ grateful for that, but just sitting by, doing _nothing_ , that’s worse than anything.” The young woman seemed to be completely serious about her issues with being benched by Coulson, but as Ward shared his superior’s concern for her, he wasn’t quite ready to support her attempts at jumping right back into action.

“Trust me, Skye, I know the feeling, but sometimes it’s just not up to you and you have to let others take care of things. Just… let Coulson handled this one, alright?” he implored her, no matter how slim he was aware the chances were for her actually listening to him. “You know he’s good at this kind of stuff; he talked Mike Peterson down, remember?”

“Yes, of course I remember,” the hacker admitted, the thoughtful expression on her face indicating that she was thinking back to the day she had met the team for the first time. “And I know that Coulson is going to reach Hannah eventually. I don’t even have a problem with May being in there, not after how she’s been supporting me these last few days, but still…”

“Still, what?” Ward asked gently a few moments after Skye had trailed off.

“I don’t know, it’s like… I feel like there’s some kind of connection between Hannah and me. It’s hard to describe, really, but I feel like I can emphasise with her to a degree none of you guys can, not you, not Coulson or May, and that that’s why _I_ should be the one talking to her.”

The specialist sighed deeply at Skye’s explanation, already having expected her to say something like that.

“Or maybe that is exactly the reason why you _shouldn’t_.” Ward knew that this was probably the exact opposite of what Skye wanted to hear right now, but the words had escaped his lips before he could have stopped himself. Not that he regretted them, however, and not even the slightly hurt look in his rookie’s eyes managed to change his mind on that.

It took all his self-control right now for him not to reach out and take his rookie’s hand in his, but he just didn’t want to take the chance of her not hearing what he had to say due to what had happened between them.

“You said it yourself earlier, Skye, you can relate to Hannah, but are you really sure that you _want_ to? That you want to be there in the cage right now not just thinking about what _she’s_ going through, but also about what _you’ve_ gone through? Do you think that would be helping either one of you?”

This time it was clearly Skye’s turn to be caught off guard and she just stared up at her S.O. in silence, unable to come up with anything to say right away. In the ensuing quiet, the voices from the video feed were clearly audible once more after they had been almost drowned out by their conversation before.

 _“God's punishing me,”_ Hannah was declaring right now, her voice all but breaking as she looked up at Coulson. _“He abandoned me. He doesn't protect me anymore. That's why this is happening.”_

 _“Protect you from what?”_ the agent asked in return. He was crouching beside the blond woman, doing his best not to appear intimidating. When he finally received his answer, however, Coulson clearly wasn’t the only one visibly surprised by it.

_“Demons, sir. I'm being haunted by demons.”_

In the command centre, Ward was staring at the video feed in bewilderment, his eyebrows risen as far as possible.

“Huh,” he uttered in surprise and finally glanced over at Skye before he continued. “Sooo… you’re still relating?” he wondered, knowing full well how insensitive his words had to sound, considering the situation, but not being able to resist the joke.

When his rookie punched him in the arm in response, the specialist actually grinned slightly, but he quickly became serious again as the young woman turned to leave the command centre and headed into the direction of the cage.

“Skye, wait!” he called after her, “I was joking, alright?”

“Yes, I know you were, but _she’s_ not,” she replied, obviously talking about their prisoner. “I’m going to wait for Coulson to come out of that room again and then I’ll convince him to let me talk to Hannah.”

The hacker suddenly stopped halfway through the lounge area of the Bus, giving Ward the chance to catch up with her. As she turned around to him once more, he could easily see how invested she was in what was happening to the blond woman in their custody, and that she would remain that way no matter what he or anyone else had to say to that.

“Look, Ward, I know you’re worried about me – obviously everyone on this team is right now – and I also know that there is probably nothing I can say to convince you that me being a part of this mission is a good idea, but I just need you to trust me on this, alright?” she implored him, but continued before he had the chance to reply immediately. “Everyone keeps telling me what I can’t do right now; that I can’t go on into the field, that I can’t continue my training, that I can’t even be a part of a stupid mission briefing,” she complained, clearly especially angry about that last part, “but _this_ , helping Hannah, that’s something I _know_ I can do, I just need a chance to prove it.”

Ward was at a complete loss for words for a moment. A part of him was incredibly relieved, almost ecstatic really, to see his rookie this passionate for something again and he wanted nothing more than to help her in every way he could, but at the same time he knew that this wasn’t his call to make. Even if he would make the according recommendation to Coulson, he wasn’t sure if their team’s leader was going to follow it, considering the specialist’s recent lapses in judgement as far as Skye was concerned.

“I do trust you, Skye, and maybe you taking a shot at this wouldn’t be a bad idea, but I don’t know if Coulson’s going to go for this. He’s made it pretty clear that he wants you to take a back seat during this operation, and I don’t think he’s ready to change his mind.”

The young woman was just about to say something to this in return, but before she had the opportunity to reply anything, the voice of the agent in question suddenly cut her short.

“Ward is right, Skye,” Coulson pointed out in his usual calm tone, causing the specialist to look past the young woman and finally notice him and May approaching them from the direction of the cage. “I obviously appreciate your concern for Miss Hutchins, but I am not going to jeopardise your well-being in favour of hers, so I’m asking you once more to accept my decision on this matter. You are not cleared for active duty yet, which means that you are not part of this operation, understood?”

“And what about him?” Skye suddenly asked in a defiant tone, indicating her S.O. “I thought he was on probation or something.”

Ward shot the young woman a speechless glance, annoyed that she would throw him under the bus like this, but Coulson clearly wasn’t in the mood for Skye’s objections, either, going by the no-nonsense way he responded.

“Agent Ward might be on probation for the time being, but as he has demonstrated his usefulness for this operation on the ground, he will continue being a part of it. You, however, are not, Skye, and I don’t want to have to remind you of that again.”

Ward was starting to get the feeling that this was quickly turning into a fight he didn’t want to be in the middle of and even though the young woman’s next retort to Coulson wasn’t worded very strongly, he was still glad that he wasn’t the one to have to reply to it.

“Well, on a plane this small there isn’t really that much for me to do if I’m not allowed to help, so what _do_ you want me to do, stay in my bunk, read a book?”

The look on Skye’s face was completely incredulous as she posed the question, but it became even more so when Coulson ultimately replied.

“Actually, I don’t think that would be a bad idea,” he admitted, causing the hacker to stare at him wordlessly for an uncomfortably long moment.

In the end she simply shrugged and muttered a small, but angry “fine,” before she turned away from her team mates and stormed off to her bunk, obviously furious.

Ward found himself looking after her for a few seconds, regret clouding his vision, until his attention was suddenly caught by Agent May, who spoke up for the first time now since she and Coulson had left the cage.

“Trust me, this could have been worse,” she pointed out, although Ward wasn’t entirely sure whether she was talking to him or Coulson right now.

**To be continued…**


End file.
